I saw this headline today on theroot.com: A Judge Asked Harvard to Find Out Why So Many Black People Were In Prison. They Could Only Find 1 Answer: Systemic Racism The author of the article is someone named Michael Harriot, whose bio describes him as a “world-renowned wypipologist.” (Look it up.) The section that caught my attention was where the author proposes and rejects other explanations for the number of black people in prison. An excerpt: “White people make up roughly 74% of the Massachusetts population while accounting for 58.7% of cases in our data,” the study explained. “Meanwhile, Black people make up just 6.5% of the Massachusetts population and account for 17.1% of cases.” Of course, that could only mean that Black people commit much more crime, right? Nope. That’s it. No further explanation. No link to relevant data. Just “Nope.” I added a comment to the article: “Of… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Death
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Tom Seaver, Lou Brock
RIP Tom and Lou Read more →
Would There Be No One to Remember
Did you suffer at the end Would there be no one to remember Did you banish all the old ghosts With the terms of surrender And could you hear me calling out your name Well I guess that I will never know Michelangelo Last night I dreamed about you I dreamed that you were weeping And your tears poured down like diamonds For a love beyond all keeping And you caught them one by one In a million silk bandannas that I gave you long ago Michelangelo — Emmylou Harris, “Michelangelo” Read more →
The Silence is the Voice of God
Our path is worn our feet are poorly shod We lift up our prayer against the odds And fear the silence is the voice of God, of God, of God And we cry Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we cry Hallelujah It is the heart that kills us in the end Just one more old broken bone that cannot mend As it was now and ever shall be amen, amen, amen — Emmylou Harris, “The Pearl” Read more →
Traffic Stops and Swimming Pools
We know that people can maintain an unshakable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like-minded believers. —Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow When I was younger (we’re all very well-behaved now 🙂 ), I had several friends and family members who had unpleasant run-ins with police, where they were cuffed or arrested or beaten, the common thread being not that they were black (they were all white), but they were all wise-asses who didn’t respect authority and couldn’t find it within themselves to be compliant to a police officer. One day my 9th-grade gym teacher told us (again, all white boys) to be excessively polite to police officers — yes sir, no sir — have your day in court if it came to that, but better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. In my experience, the narrative that only… Read more →
I Blame Donald Trump
On this date, Aug. 24, in the year 79 A.D., an estimated 20,000 people died when Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash. Read more →
Weekend at Biden’s
I have a sense that Joe Biden is already dead and the Dems are trying to pull off a Weekend at Bernie’s scenario . . . just keep moving him around from place to place and propping him up . . . Read more →
Four Existential Questions
Can I eat it? Can I have sex with it? Can it kill me? Can I buy it at a discount? Read more →
People I Thought Were Dead
About 19 years ago, I published the first version of People I Thought Were Dead. As of yesterday, July 25, 2020, with the death of Olivia De Havilland of natural causes at the age of 104, all of those people are now actually deceased. Read more →
Playlists for Pandemics
Come take a walk on the wild side Come kiss me hard in the pouring rain You like your girls insane So, choose your last words, this is the last time ‘Cause you and I, we were born to die — Lana Del Rey, “Born to Die” Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Jim Kiick
Jim Kiick was a running back, primarily with the Miami Dolphins, from 1968 to 1977. He played in three Super Bowls, winning two, and scored the decisive touchdown in Super Bowl VII, a 14-7 victory over the Washington Redskins that capped off an undefeated 17-0 swason. He is the Dolphins’ fourth all-time leading rusher. Kiick had been suffering from dementia and living in an assisted care center for several years prior to his death. RIP Jim Kiick Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Wes Unseld
Wes Unseld was the second overall pick by the Baltimore Bullets in 1968. He was the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and the Most Valuable Player Award in the same year. At 6-foot-7, he played center and averaged 14 rebounds a game for his career. He played in four NBA finals with the Bullets, winning one, in which he was voted MVP, in 1978. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988. RIP Wes Unseld Read more →
Milwaukee Police Chief Accused of Being Inattentive. His Response May Surprise You!
Protests Considered Harmful?
I saw multiple people on TV this weekend looting stores, running out with a “Black Lives Matter” sign in one hand and stolen merchandise in the other. Maybe we should stop having these Black Lives Matter protests. The majority of the TV coverage is black citizens stealing things and setting things on fire, which doesn’t improve anyone’s lives and probably, in terms of prejudice and race relations, makes things worse. In this case, the George Floyd case, I haven’t heard one person say that kneeling on someone’s neck and killing them is good police work. So it’s really a protest against no one, except the one guy who did it and he’s already been fired, arrested, charged with murder and condemned by everyone from the president of the United States on down. There’s no opposing viewpoint to protest against. The mayor of Atlanta, who is a black woman and therefore… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Al Kaline
Al Kaline played all 22 years of his career as a right fielder for the Detroit Tigers, played in 18 All-Star games, won 10 Gold Gloves, a World Series in 1968, had 3,007 hits, 399 home runs, a .297 batting average and was a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He died today at the age of 85. On his 80th birthday, he said: “To this day, I can’t believe the life I’ve had. I wanted to be a baseball player — and do the one thing I was good at. “Even now, I love it so much.” RIP Al Kaline Read more →
Some People Need More Help to Calm Down
Ric Flair‘s son, Reid Flair, died of an overdose of heroin, Klonopin and Xanax. It seems like one alone would be sufficient but he evidently needed more help than most people to calm down! (The death occurred in 2013 but I just read about it this week.) Read more →
Our Town
On this date — Feb. 4, 1938 — the Thornton Wilder play Our Town opened on Broadway . . . Emily: Oh, Mama, look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I’m dead. You’re a grandmother, Mama! Wally’s dead, too. His appendix burst on a camping trip to North Conway. We felt just terrible about it — don’t you remember? But, just for a moment now we’re all together. Mama, just for a moment we’re happy. Let’s really look at one another! … I can’t. I can’t go on. It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back — up the hill — to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-bye, Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover’s Corners….Mama and Papa. Good-bye… Read more →
Steve Martin Caro, 1948-2020
He was the lead singer on one of my favorite 1960s songs . . . RIP Steve Martin Caro Read more →
Jack Sheldon, 1931-2019
RIP Jack Sheldon Read more →
Not Waving But Drowning
Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning. — Stevie Smith, “Not Waving But Drowning” Read more →