Apologies to …
The shit has already hit the fan and the stench is everywhere.
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It is often said that one is not supposed to speak ill of the dead. Using extreme examples to make a point, what about Hitler? Nasrallah? Ted Bundy?
I have written about Pete Rose (no, I am not implying he is as evil as the three people mentioned above) on one or two previous occasions and the last time I did I think I wrote he would never be mentioned again. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…
According to the Baseball-Reference ranking of players by WAR, Wins Above Replacement, Rose ranks 66th all-time. Frankly, I’m surprised he ranks that high. Still, that places him far behind one-time teammate Joe Morgan (31st) or a player like Wade Boggs (43rd). Of course, neither of them admitted to betting on baseball, to betting on their own team.
I had the misfortune of meeting Pete Rose on two occasions. He was an incredibly self-centered and immature jerk. (I’ll refrain from using profanity.)
Not that my opinion matters, but I do not think Rose should ever be removed from Major League Baseball’s Ineligible List. Remember that he agreed to being placed on the list, to being banned from baseball. He accepted that a factual reason existed for the ban.
Hopefully, this really will be the last time I write about Pete Rose.
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It is not my intention to be a one-trick pony, but again I must write about events in the Middle East. From this Why Evolution Is True (WEIT) post:
The IDF struck and killed the head of Hamas in Lebanon, who turned out to be (surprise!) a former UNRWA teacher.
The only way peace will come to the Middle East is if Arab children are no longer brainwashed from birth to hate Jews and to aspire to “martyrdom” as a way to annihilate Israel. UNRWA is at the forefront of that brainwashing. It’s like former Israeli Prime Minister, the late Golda Meir, once said, “Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
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So, after having finished another read of The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company by James Ward, I am attempting–once again–to get through parts of Packard A History Of The Motor Car And The Company edited by the late Beverly Rae Kimes. My ADD tendencies are not helpful in this endeavor.
The Kimes book is thoroughly researched, perhaps too much so. Sometimes the content goes past trivia into minutia, in my opinion. I am also disappointed that a more in-depth exposition of the reasons why Packard failed is not included in this tome of 800+ pages. I know I have praised the book in the past, but a foolish consistency…
The Kimes book does have many photos including some in color. Here are two photos from the book of classic Packards from the 1930s.
Of course, many Packards had custom coachwork so some cars are close to being one-offs. Yes, my mind immediately goes to, “If my wonderful wife and I win A LOT of money in a lottery I could buy a car like this and have it resto-modded so I could actually drive it.” Some might call that blasphemous, but my money, my car, my rules.
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Thanks again to readers for a good month for blog views and visitors. Both metrics are, not surprisingly, dependent on the frequency of posting. For example, in September, 2024, days with a post had 130 percent more views than days without one.
The three most-read posts for September were:
The three most-read posts so far this year are:
Most Valuable Studebaker (now the third most-read post in the history of this blog)
Cadillac vs Packard (now the second most-read post in the history of this blog)
Of the three most-read posts only the one about Larry Lucchino was written in 2024. Like everything else in life, that fact has positive and negative implications.
#NotesFromTheUnderground
#GoldaMeir
#ClassicPackards