Dear Kid,

All sorts of moving sporting events are happening. And by “moving” I mean motion not e-motion.

The bulls have started running in Pamploma. This is possibly one of the stupidest events in the history of stupid events. I am not referring to the intelligence level of the bulls. The running of the bulls lasts for a week and sends a lot of people to the hospital.

The Tour de France has started. In France. This is possibly one of the dopiest events in the history of dopy events. And by “dopy” I really mean dope-ed. Yesterday there was a huge crash forcing a number of riders (including the guy wearing the yellow jersey) out of the race. The Tour last 21 days and generally doesn’t send this many people to the hospital this early in the event.

The World Cup is moving out of Canada now that the women have agreed that the USA women are the best. Now eyes are being cast in this direction in preparation for the All Star game next week. Since the entire world was watching, a violent fight broke out on Fountain Square on the 4^th. Lovely. Usually the 4^th of July doesn’t send this many people to the hospital for non-fireworks related injuries.

Makes you want to vote for the bulls.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Mea Culpa.

I got it wrong.

A few days ago I commented on major league baseball (MLB if you prefer). More specifically, I talked about attending my first professional baseball game and my observations thereof. Much of what I said was accurate, or at least sufficiently opinion-based to be inarguable. But I oopsed.

I said Cinci would host this year’s All Star Game.

As several people have gently pointed out, Cincinnati is hosting Next Year’s All Star Game. July 14, 2015 should you care to mark your calendar.

I thought about bluffing and blustering my way along by explaining that people need to not only read between the lines, but also read between the words. Here was the logic I was considering.

What I actually said:

This year’s All-Star Game will be in Cincinnati. 

The odd logic I was considering using:

What I was implying was: This (the year of which I speak, 2015) year’s All-Star Game will be in Cincinnati. 

I decided that was pushing it, even for me.

I also firmly believe that it is important to admit when we’re wrong. It is especially important for people other than me to admit when they’re wrong.

Admitting that we’re (occasionally) wrong keeps us from looking like stuck up idiots because we’re all occasionally incorrect.

Sitcoms regularly recycle the idea of a character being unable to utter the phrase “I was wrong.” Sometimes they are able to make it funny. More often it’s just sad.

Being wrong is part of being human. Recognizing it, admitting it, and apologizing and correcting the mistake is part of being an adult.

To quote the vernacular, “Man up.”

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

The other night, I joined thirty-two thousand of my closest friends and went to my first live-and-in-person major league baseball game. (It was my friend Crystal’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Ninja!)

Here’s what I learned.

Baseball in person is better than baseball on TV. It is also considerably more crowded.

Baseball is better when the home team wins. Go Reds!

You can buy a really good vegetable cup at the Great American Ball Park. Once you do, you won’t be able to afford college tuition, but you’ll have a few healthy veggies to nibble.

Baseball doesn’t have a lot of action (I already knew that), but the stadium does.

Sometimes, baseball tickets get you free pizza. Thank you to the Cleveland players who struck out.

They sweep the dirt at baseball games. They also Swiffer the bases.

I will never be able to mow my lawn in such cool patterns.

This year’s All-Star Game will be in Cincinnati. Whoever created the logo did a really great job—unlike the person (me) who took the photo of the logo.

Make today a home run day, kiddo.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

December 12^th was Quite a day in history. And, being the kind of mother I am, I have decided to try to make some sense out of it for you. (I am such a good mom.)

In 1408 The Order of the Dragon was first created. This is important since the Dust Dragons are direct decedents of the Order and believe it is their dust-given right to overtake any place they want to overtake. Since I am a better blogger than a housekeeper, mostly I don’t argue. Mostly.

Fast forward to 1787 when Pennsylvania became 2nd state to ratify US Constitution, paving the way for We The People to become a country.

Speaking of We The People, on December 12, 1800, Washington DC was established as the capital of US so that many, many years later Auntie M could go to college there. Many years.

Then in 1914, many People tried to fly out of windows on Wall Street because of the largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 24.39%. Note: They did not master the art of flying before hitting the pavement.

Musically speaking, in 1792, Ludwig Von Beethoven received his 1st lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn. Ludwig was 22 at the time. You know why this is important, right? How could we have Peanuts and Snoopy without Schroeder playing Beethoven?

A lot of sports things happened on December 12^th (which is odd because I don’t usually think of December 12^th as a big sports day. But it was, so pay attention, because We, The People are big sports fans).

In 1899 George F Bryant of Boston patented the wooden golf tee, paving the way for using golf tees for all sorts of things, even golf.

In 1930, the Baseball Rules Committee greatly revised the rule book. Pretty much no one noticed. On the same day in 1949, the American League voted 7-1 rejecting legalizing the spitball. The lone dissenter spit on the decision.

In 1953, Chuck Yeager reached Mach 2.43. I don’t know if that really counts as sport, but it paved the way for the movie The Right Stuff which is a Most Excellent film.

Speaking of excellent movies, in 1965 Gale Sayers of Chicago Bears scored 6 TDs, tying the NFL record, paving the way (quite indirectly) for the movie Brian’s Song which is not only Most Excellent but is also one of the all-time Tear Jerkers.

In 1968 Arthur Ashe became the 1st black to be ranked #1 in tennis. Yep, he was that good.

And perhaps most importantly, in 1981 Wayne Gretzky scored the quickest 50th goal (game 39).

Here are a bunch of random bits of December 12^th history:

In 1901 Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less. This historic message was Morse code for the letter “s” rendering the whole event fairly obscure in history. Take a lesson from Alex Bell and be memorable if you’re going to do something historic.

On December 12, 1913 Hebrew was officially introduced as the language for teaching in Palestinian schools. Tov!

In 1925, Mr. Arthur Heinman coined term “motel” and opened the Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA. I think it’s pretty cool to be known almost a century later for having invented a word and a concept. I hope to be known as the mother of the child who invented the word “oversplode” (among other things).

And for a Cincinnati fact, on December 12, 1946 Tide detergent was introduced. Happy Birthday, Tide!

I The Mom hope your day is equally eventful,

Love, Mom