A message to America's commercial bakers

Listen here.

You cannot take the Wonder Bread recipe, shape it into a long loaf and call it Italian bread. Do you hear me?! You cannot do this.

And you cannot call your "Italian" loaves "crispy" if we can wrap the loaf around our necks like a scarf. You cannot do this.

Have you ever tasted Italian bread? There are these places called "Italian bakeries". Here's what you do: find one, trot on over there, and buy a loaf of Italian bread.

Now, hold it in your hands. Look at it. Feel it. Smell it. And then taste it. Ahhhhhhhh!

Now you have a starting point. Get to work!

Racist principal at Bronx Catholic HS?

Apparently that's exactly what this guy is. Here's an excerpt from an article at the New York Daily News site today:

A firebrand educator with ties to a white supremacist group is running a Bronx Catholic school where most of the students are black and Latino, the Daily News has learned.

It goes on to say:

In 2004, Borzellieri wrote the book "Don't Take It Personally: Race, Immigration, Crime and Other Heresies," in which he declares "diversity is a weakness" and says the rising black and Hispanic populations in America will lead to the "New Dark Age."

He has also written frequently for the white supremacist publication American Renaissance, with which he is still "intimately involved," the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center says.

And of course, the dimwitted Roman Catholic priest angle comes into the story:

Mount Carmel pastor, the Rev. Eric Rapaglia, said he knew of Borzellieri's views, but didn't "see any cause for concern" when he hired him to run the 200-student elementary school.

Of course not. What possible problem could arise from putting a white supremacist in charge of a largely minority school body? So he appoints Borzellieri principal and the guy goes on to ban books about other races and minorities, including a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. He also fired an openly gay teacher and instituted a policy whereby discussion of homosexuality is banned from the classroom.

Shucks, he's just a good ol' boy. I'm sure the Nazi pope would approve. No problema. Meanwhile, this lunatic is still the principal.

PS (in case you didn't notice): This is what happens when you substitute religious "rules" for actual, you know, morality. The Roman Catholic church has no moral center. None.

Which posts get hits?

Blogger tracks how many hits each post gets, and it's weird to see which ones win the competition. Some people would phrase this as "which ones are the most popular." But of course, hits are just a reflection of the tags at the end of the post. Did people search for those words or not? That's what makes a "hit". Popularity ain't got nothing to do with it.

Looking at the results, it's easy to see that when I write about popular or newsworthy things, I get hits. Just see # 1 below. In any case, here are my top ten posts, judged by # of hits (they're linked so you can click on them to read the posts):

1. So many people died in yesterday's tornadoes
2. Don't forget: the world ends today
3. Old Italian women in black veils
4. Confirmed: Giants' Brian Wilson is straight
5. Sundance documentary: Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare
6. What's with the baseball umpires?
7. A little help from some fab guys
8. Truly scary movies
9. Michio Kaku on Fukushima
10. NOVA Japan earthquake show

# 7 is just a video of the Beatles singing "Help". And it's no surprise that # 4 (Brian Wilson's sexuality) got a lot of hits. People wanna know. # 3 surprises me. You wouldn't think it would generate hits. I'm glad to see #8 up there because I liked that post. At least someone, somewhere read it. And hey, someone read a baseball post (#6)!

On the other hand, I got a zillion hits and no comments except for Annie's? What's wrong with this picture? C'mon, folks: comment! Tell me what you think. All sane bloggers welcome this. And as for your end of the deal, commenting is half the fun of visiting blogs -- and it's not scary, really.

One caveat regarding the lack of comments: the Brian Wilson post did generate comments. Not a lot, but comments. One was snarky but hey, that's fine. Express your opinions, people. It's what blogs are all about. Otherwise, we'd just write our posts on a typewriter and then drop the pages on the floor. Live a little -- comment.

We live in cycles. (Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone.)

If we look at the world around us, we see that people are not the same every day. They go through periods where they feel a certain way, and then one day they feel differently. But no one notices. I find this omission strange.

For example, take a baseball player who has 22 multiple-hit games in a row. He's on fire! But then a day comes along where he strikes out four times in one game. The cycle is over. And then what happens? He does not resume his hitting streak the day after the strike-outs. That cycle is done. Instead, he goes into a slump and the slump goes on for whatever period of time . . . until one day he hits! And then he's on a hitting streak again. C'mon, people. There's a message here. We are cyclical creatures.

The new DVR arrived. Thank dog!

My baseball blackout is over. The new DVR came within two days. Not bad, Directv, not bad.

On the other hand, jeez. You've ruined everything. The last DVR and remote Directv supplied me with (the one that died) was great. That's it on the left. It fit in your hand like magic. You could literally watch TV with the thing sitting in your hand, and not be aware of it. The contours were made in heaven! (Don't get carried away; there is no heaven.)

The replacement system came with a remote shaped like a brick. Nice going, Directv. It's always great to move backward. That's just what we're looking for in life. Additionally, it's a totally different software setup and the remote has a longish lag time. It's no longer responsive. You click . . . and at some point something happens. Oy.

I could go on and on about the software's failings. The GUI seems to have been built by an idiot. Sigh. But baseball's back. I guess I'll settle for that.

Ever had a company ruin something you loved, by putting out a "new, improved" version of it? Do tell in the comments.

The new DVR arrived. Thank dog!

My baseball blackout is over. The new DVR came within two days. Not bad, Directv, not bad.

On the other hand, jeez. You've ruined everything. The last DVR and remote Directv supplied me with (the one that died) was great. It fit in your hand like magic. You could literally watch TV with the thing sitting in your hand, and not be aware of it. The contours were made in heaven! (Don't get carried away; there is no heaven.)

The replacement system came with a remote shaped like a brick. Nice going, Directv. It's always great to move backward. That's just what we're looking for in life. Additionally, it's a totally different software setup and the remote has a longish lag time. It's no longer responsive. You click . . . and at some point something happens. Oy.

I could go on and on about the software's failings. The GUI seems to have been built by an idiot. Sigh. But baseball's back. I guess I'll settle for that.

Ever had a company ruin something you loved, by putting out a "new, improved" version of it? Do tell.

What skills have you learned through reading?

When I want to learn how to do something, I read a book about it. And then I read more books about it, and then more. In this way, I've learned to do a number of things.

I learned how to ride a motorcycle by reading a book. I never spoke to a single human being about motorcycles. I read a book, rented a bike on three successive weekends and tooled around the Shea Stadium parking lot, trying stuff they talked about in the book. When I could do it all, I scheduled my test and got my motorcycle license.

Then I bought a bike and read the manual. I never in my life spoke to another human being about motorcycle maintenance, but my bike was always in perfect condition because I learned how to take care of it by reading the manual. (I also have a good work ethic and did everything the manual suggested.)

There was a time in my human rights work when I became aggravated by the mistakes that always appeared in our published works. Someone on the production end muffed it every single time, often killing the very point of the publication. So I bought books on desktop publishing and the elements of good page design. I read them all, practiced each lesson they taught me, and was able to create four good-looking newsletters, tons of flyers and reports (and many funny things for my friends). I learned it all from reading. (Same with software. I'm the guy who actually read the manuals. You may have heard of me.)

Enough from my end. What skills have you learned from a book?