Be ever on guard!

One of the most wonderful things on the Internet is Google Books’ complete collection of Life magazines, starting in the 1930s. This evening, I was looking at an issue from 1937 (March 19, to be exact), and found this copy from a Listerine ad:

How Career Girls overcome the greatest handicap to success

Business… the stage… teaching… other professions… each is a field sizzling with fierce competition in which no quarter is asked and none given.

Who has the better chance of getting ahead – a girl whose breath is sweet and fresh or one whose breath is a continual offense to others?

Be Ever On Guard

Common sense gives you the answer. Today only the dull and stupid fail to recognize the threat of halitosis (bad breath) and the harm it can do. The fastidious, the intelligent appraise it for what it is – a constant menace that may be present one day and absent the next. They are continually on guard against it.

If you like old ads – and you should! – you might enjoy this collection of ads from the 1920s and 1930s that I put together a few years ago: So, Unafraid, He Faced The Setting Sun. These ads were taken from newspapers (printed from microfiche) and cleaned up a bit using Photoshop.

You won’t want to miss this

If you are a Blue Jays fan, or even if you are only remotely interested in baseball, you owe it to yourself to watch Jose Bautista play as much as you can. I don’t know how long it will last, but he’s having a very special season right now.

The two statistics that best measure how good a hitter is are on-base percentage and slugging percentage. And Bautista is clearly better than everybody else in the American League in both categories. Compare him to the #2 player in both:

On-base: Bautista .515, Miguel Cabrera .443
Slugging: Bautista .760, Curtis Granderson .639

That first number is the most startling: he’s reaching base over half the time. Nobody does that, except Barry Bonds when he was (allegedly) pumped full of various interesting chemicals.

The thing is, this isn’t going to last forever. He might get hurt, or something might throw off his timing. So watch him now while you can.

It’s about the Blue Jays

Went to the Jays game last night with some of the people I knew back when I was writing for Batter’s Box. It was enjoyable to be in the company of people who are even more obsessive about baseball than I am! Craig and Rob, who organized the event, bought everybody two packs of baseball cards – one from 1988 and one from 1991. I am now the proud owner of a Junior Noboa baseball card. My life is enriched.

Some random thoughts about the 2011 Jays and baseball follow:

• Edwin Encarnacion has 10 doubles this year, but no triples or home runs. How often does that happen? Looking through the AL stats, I notice that the next highest total of doubles only is 6 (two players have done this, one of whom is Ichiro). If EE isn’t hitting home runs, he’s not much use, though – he doesn’t walk, field or run. We may be seeing Brett Lawrie very soon – though it’s likely he won’t come up until bringing him up wouldn’t allow him to go for arbitration a year sooner.
• Vladimir Guerrero is swinging at everything for Baltimore this year – 124 at-bats, only 2 walks. He’s always been a swing at everything kind of dude, but whoa.
• Similarly, Adam Lind has the same number of home runs (7) as walks (7). If you’re hitting .317, you can get away with this.
• I mentioned yesterday that Jose Bautista is unique in baseball history: somebody who has just hit 54 home runs but still feels he has something to prove. Somebody that I was talking to suggested that Roger Maris was in the same boat, but I don’t think Maris felt that he needed to prove something to the world after his 61 in ’61 – he just wanted the world to go away.
• We decided that we liked Jesse Litsch. My lunch today will be free, courtesy of him – he struck out enough batters to make my ticket good for a free slice of pizza.
• If Rzepczynski (I had to look it up) keeps pitching like that, he could have a job until he is 40. Left-handed spot relievers can just keep on going and going and going.
• Jason Frasor is pitching well – which, I was reminded, he usually does when he’s not asked to close. He’s a survivor.
• It looks like Francisco is going to be one of those high-wire closers: he gets the save, but not before driving the fans crazy with worry.
• The next time somebody criticizes the Jays’ front office too much, consider this: Alex Rios is hitting .178 and is being paid $12 million, and Vernon Wells is hitting .180 and is being paid $23 million. Both have three more years on their contracts. I feel sorry for Wells, actually: he seems like a nice guy, and he works hard. It’s not his fault that he is overpaid: in fact, given how much flak he has taken, both here and in Los Angeles, you could argue that he has almost earned the money.
• And, to finish up: those of us watching the game last night agreed that Gregg Zaun is now doing what he is born to do. He’s fun to follow on Twitter, though some of his comments are a little cryptic. (If he writes “Linda”, it’s shorthand for a Jays pitcher striking out an opponent on a fastball. “Linda” is short for “Linda Ronstadt”, who sang “Blue Bayou” – and that fastball just “blew by you”. Isn’t baseball fun?)

A relative is looking for a place to live in Toronto in September

Just a quick “help wanted” post: my cousin’s daughter is starting school at OCAD in September, and is looking for a place to live. Any leads would be appreciated. Thanks!

(Baseball-related post coming soon.)

HotDocs!

This year, I finally did something I have never done before: I got around to buying tickets for movies in the HotDocs documentary film festival. Usually, by the time I think of it, all the good shows are sold out.

I bought three tickets, so I got to see five movies (three long ones, two short ones). Here’s what I saw:

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop: when Conan O’Brien left the Tonight Show, he was legally barred from appearing on television for six months. During his enforced sabbatical, he went on tour: something like 44 cities. It was great fun, but I got tired just watching it: even the most compulsive extrovert would get a little weary following an endless series of shows, meet-and-greets, and so on. Two things I realized: Conan is a compulsive performer – he created shows for himself on his days off – and I never want to wait around after a show to meet a celebrity or have him sign something, as so many people want to do this, and it’s so tiring for the star.

Tuned In: a short film about a man who lives out in the desert and listens to (and records) sounds that the earth itself makes. Really fascinating, with double bonus points for the desert footage. Someday, I might move to the desert and become an eccentric hermit.

Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then: This is about a man whose wife became gravely ill, so he built extensions on his house in an attempt to create a miracle and thus save her. The film is shot in a style that reminded me of surrealistic paintings. Not everyone’s cup of tea – at least half a dozen people walked out – and it lasted a bit longer than I would have liked, but the images and the story were like brain candy to me.

Set Backs – a very short film, shot as stop-motion animation, about two alcoholic sisters who get into a serious argument. It has a happy ending; they’ve both stopped drinking. I was impressed by this movie.

Inside Lara Roxx: the story of a Quebec-born woman who went to California to make money as a porn star and wound up infected with HIV. The movie traces what happened to her in the years since her diagnosis. Honest and unflinching – amazing.

We’ll see

This is what I wrote on my Facebook page this morning:

Harper has achieved his life’s dream – a majority government, and the virtual annihilation of the Liberal Party. One can only hope that he remembers that, even now, he only has the support of 40% of Canadians, and one can only hope that he will use this absolute power wisely. I fear the worst, but you never know.

By the way, this is probably the last politics-related post that I will write for some time (unless Harper eliminates the CBC or Parliament or something like that). I will probably go back to writing random stuff about music or trivia, and go back to having about 8 blog views a day 🙂 – so be it.

Oh Lord.

This is depressing beyond words.

My first French spam!

It’s been a while since I posted here, but I wanted to mention that I got my first spam written in French! Here it is:

Bonjour,

Je m’appelle [name withheld] et je suis a la recherche de sites de jeux en ligne. Je m’adresse à vous parce que je pense que votre site davetill.com pourrait bénéficier d’un échange de liens de qualité avec notre réseau de sites. Ce type de partenariat gratuit peut donner de véritables résultats en termes de référencement.

Merci de me contacter pour élaborer un projet d’echange de liens gagnant-gagnant.

My limited French tells me (and Babelfish confirms) that this is a request for a link exchange. I love it that French has the word “gagnant-gagnant” in it – this sounds much better than the English equivalent of “win-win”.

The surge in popularity of the NDP (also known as the “Orange Crush’) is, of course, the biggest news of the seemingly endless election campaign. Many of my Facebook friends have changed their profile pictures to something NDP-related – so many that I don’t think I want to, even if I decide to vote NDP – I am not a joiner by temperament.

Some things that pro-NDP people have said about Layton and his party, or that have occurred to me:

• Provincial NDP governments have successfully balanced budgets. (To which some have countered that the federal NDP has different policies than their provincial counterparts.)
• Layton will listen to other people and will change his mind if something isn’t working (this seems a strong selling point to me)
• While many NDP candidates aren’t exactly experienced politicians (one Quebec candidate, infamously, spent a lot of the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas), it’s not as if the Conservatives have a great deal of experience.
• The NDP may be bad with money, but the Conservatives aren’t exactly fiscally prudent either.
• If Quebec voters turn from the Bloc to the NDP, it will be good news: the province will be more engaged federally.

I’ll be curious to see what happens tomorrow (though I will be deeply unhappy if the Conservatives get a majority).

P.S.: Vote!