"And will there be rabbits, Julian?"
Manny being Manny. The need for interpretation is bourgeois.
Who's the other guy? He's the one you'd wonder about.
Had to show this to my boss, the Yankees fan.
still just my second favorite manny video.
He's rubbing his head for good luck.
That is because Manny Ramirez is fucking awesome, ogged.
More insight, which is to say none.
Manny Ramirez gives less of a shit about anything other than hitting than any other living person. How can you not respect that?
Those short crew cuts are fuzzy and fun to pet.
That is sweet. Reminds me of my students in Samoa, who were always all over each other in a snuggly playful puppy way.
So awesome. The announcers really make the clip.
I think the other guy is Julian Tavarez. Him and Manny have been friends since 1992 or something, according to the New Yorker.
From the link in 10:
When I asked his teammate David Ortiz, himself a borderline folk hero, how he would describe Ramirez, he replied, "As a crazy motherfucker." Then he pointed at my notebook and said, "You can write it down just like that: 'David Ortiz says Manny is a crazy motherfucker.' That guy, he's in his own world, on his own planet. Totally different human being than everyone else."Awesome.
The relaxedness of the other guy makes it look like (a) Ramirez does that sort of thing an awful lot, and (b) Ramirez is one disarming motherfucker. I really like people like that -- who can get away with all sorts of shit that would be unreasonably annoying from someone else, just because they can emotionally project that it's all okay and nothing's happening that anyone needs to get mad about. (I hate people who think that they're like that and aren't -- remember Bush rubbing Merkel's shoulders as she jumped away from him?)
That is, the other guy is definitely Julian Tavarez, no two ways about it. And if he is definitely not one of the most easygoing guys in baseball. Except when Manny's involved.
12: Do you have trouble with American standards for physical affection w/r/t Sally and Newt? PK is really cuddly and puppydoggish and likes to grab and wrestle other kids, and he's starting to get to an age where his peers don't like it. Which fine, I'm working on the socialization thing, but it's kind of sad.
16: So true. One of the funny things about the various threads here about appropriate behavior is that "appropriate," IRL, is hyper-dependent on "can get away with." And that, you just have to learn by experience.
I can't believe no one else has made the obvious Omar-and-his-boyfriend reference.
Yes, that's Tavarez, he's Manny's best friend on the team.
I just thank god that Varitek hit into a double play to end the inning, or Manny might have gone to second base.
Manny Ramirez gives less of a shit about anything other than hitting than any other living person. How can you not respect that?
That's it. Manny is awesome, no further interpretation necessary. Tavarez is also awesome, but in a scarier, crazier way.
It used to be that Don and Jerry would completely crack up and lose it a couple times per year; now it seems like every game. I love, love, love those two.
Maybe Tavarez gels his hair with pine tar.
Is there a term for code-switching physical space/affection? This could totally be me and one of my cousins, but if one of my American friends tried it, I'd call him a fag and punch him.
18: I haven't noticed it. They're both cuddly and roughhousy with us; if I'm home, someone is either on my lap or punching me. With their friends they seem to keep it in a zone that doesn't cause them problems. (Newt's a big hand-holder when he's walking with his friends, which kills me with the adorableness.)
For a couple years now Tavarez has been the ambassador from Mannyville every time Manny's been in one of his moods. The two of them having a secret love affair would make everything make more sense -- maybe Manny being Manny is a manifestation of the challenge of living life in the closet in the public eye?
The video linked in 8 is awesome. I vividly remember that game.
25: PK's the same way with the on top of me and the killingly adorable hand-holding. He needs to get a little better about the chasing and tackling and lying down on top of his favorite friends in the playground thing, though.
Too funny. When I was watching this the other night, I thought, the Unfoggetariat would love this scene. Manny rules.
Has to be said: What is "Manny being Manny"?
It's clear that none of you knows anything about Red Sox history and traditions. Ted Williams used to stroke Dom DiMaggio's head in the dugout all the time. All the time.
But that's nothing compared to what Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens used to do to Jody Reed.
Look on Standpipe's blog, SEK.
(Although it is funny to note that the recent two-page Manny spread in my local Spanish-language newspaper featured just exactly this phrase.)
One interpretation: Manny is Tavarez's keeper. Manny must soothe and pet Tavarez, lest he totally flip out and kill people.
Seriously, bg is right. What is up with the site today? Super-slow.
33: Not to mention the perversions of Mike Pagliarulo, Tony Conigliari, and Billy Conigliari.
By the way, my theory on what Manny's doing in the scoreboard? Smoking pot.
What the heck am I talking about, saying "Mike Pagliarulo" when I mean "Rico Petrocelli".
34: Actually, it's just NESN-speak for Manny. Since I watch out-of-market Sox games on NESN, I've learned the lingo.* (Plus, those Boston commercials can't be beat.)
*Note: Not a Sox fan per se, just hate the Yankees.
Do not get me started on fucking NESN commercials. I will not do business with any entity that purchases air time on a Sox game. What is it with NE and furniture? If you judged by commercials you'd figure the average bostonian's home is 70% bed and 20% loveseat.
42: And the accents? Straight off SNL, which leads me to believe that they're chosen because they'll remind all right-speaking Bostonians of their inadequate devotion to the region. (Also, that weird Dairy Queen/7-11/Midas hybrid store amuses me to no end. "Come get soft-serve and a lube!")
42: Do you have the same rule against patronizing WEEI advertisers? If so, who do you call when your windshield's busted?
43: Really, most people in Massachusetts just talk like that. But yes, it does make those of us who failed to acquire accents feel a little ashamed.
Man, I wish I had NESN.
This actually gives me hope.
45: There's always MLB.tv, but I went with Extra Innings OnDemand, as I can't not watch 99 percent of the Mets games and not commit suicide. I tutor two kids a week just so I can afford it. Kind of like when I used to mow my parents' lawn five times a week (at six dollars a pop) just so I could afford Kid Icarus.
38: That's what I figured. I'd love to see a little wisp of smoke curl out the door to confirm. I'm thinking that Bob Marley was imagining this when he sang "Red, Red Wine."
Man, I wish I had NESN.
Dude -- mlb.tv.
48: My internet is too stolen flaky for that at the moment.
47: Time well spent. Kid Icarus was a sweet game.
d'oh.
Mlb.tv is acceptable in the absence of any alternative, even though they've pissed me off this year by deciding that Portland is part of the Mariners' market, so Mariners-Sox games are blacked out on my line.
49: Can I tell you how excited I am that this is coming out soon?
Man I need a Wii so bad.
Say, they should change their slogan to "I need to Wii!"
A joke I'm sure has never been made.
52: Best 250 I ever spent. Seriously, I spend hours playing tennis with ankle weights on now. I'm, like, exercising!
53: It feels kind of silly to exercise inside around here, but yeah, I want one.
That Mario game looks fresh, too.
45: People in Western MA (i.e., the sticks) don't talk like that.
55: I was excluding western MA, it being the sticks.
People there do talk plenty funny, but it's a variation.
It's been interesting to learn the lay of the regional accent land in California. They're subtle, but definitely there.
mow my parents' lawn five times a week
What the hell? Was their lawn planted with kudzu?
My brother got a Wii yesterday, the bastard.
Yeah, it sucks, parents always give the illegitimate offspring better gifts to make them feel loved.
I played Wii for the first time on Sunday. It was okay.
43: My mom hasn't lived in Boston for nearly fifty years, and she still has the accent.
Jesus' mom is pathological. And not at all immaculate.
What the hell? Was their lawn planted with kudzu?
It was my father's notion of how to teach me the relationship between work and money. Any time I mowed the lawn, I was given six dollars. This way, I never complained about not having money, I just went out and mowed the lawn. When the NES first came out, I actually mowed the lawn three times a day for two weeks until I could afford one. And we didn't have one of those fancy mowers that pulled itself. I had to push the bastard. (I don't think I stole a base that entire season, actually.)
Self-involved threadjack:
My job situation for next year, and most likely for the next fifteen to twenty years, have just been finalized. It is not my first choice of jobs (I will be teaching in a community college) or my first choice of locations (Elyria, OH, just outside of Cleveland). For the past four years I've been temping at a great job in a great location. So I'm trying not to feel like I just got a demotion and a transfer to a crappy location, and it's just not working.
How should I comfort myself? The following methods are ruled out:
1. Getting completely loaded. (I have to tend the children for the next 6 hrs while my wife works)
2. Having wild sex (ditto)
3. Spending money recklessly (we need to do some belt tightening for the move)
Didn't you say it was TT though? That has to be better than temping. I mean, you'll have compatriots!
(Also, if money's that tight, my parents still have a lawn.)
It's a job where your teaching will really be valued? For your best students, you're opening doors back into higher education that would otherwise be completely closed to them? Low pressure and relaxing? Low cost of living, you'll probably end up in an awfully nice house?
Any of that helping>
Yup. TT. After 8 years of temping. That's why I say I'll be there 15-20 years. I should feel good about this, but my expectations were raised by another job prospect that went away. Also, I'm a bleak minded motherfucker.
Teaching valued, and teaching students who will be helped by it are both definitely plusses. But with 175 students a semester, I will have too much grading to call it low stress.
Also, all I saw of Elyria looked like strip mall. If I could find a place to live where I could walk to my job, my kids school, and the grocery store I would feel a fuck of a lot better.
FWIW, Rob, before my dad got sick he had been adjuncting at a CC for a few years, and he really enjoyed it a lot. It's a lot of hands-on teaching, and at least where he was (though this varies from school to school) the kids were actually pretty impressive, as was the working environment.
70: There's always the chance that other TT positions will open up. We've had two veritable establishments leave this year -- not for better schools, but better situations. Other opportunities will arise, I have no doubt. (Also, what LB said.)
Before, constant temping was the worst-case scenario. Now, tenure-track job for 45 years at a strip mall is the worst-case scenario. Other opportunities will continue to exist. Isn't that an improvement?
Seconding LB's housing comment. There's a slew of neat west side neighborhoods in commuting range of where I'm pretty sure you'll be teaching, and prices are really friendly right now.
Thanks. This is helpful.
75: Any specific advice for neighborhoods? Finding a nice place to live will make all the difference.
74: Yes, this is an improvement. Were I of a different temperament, I may of threadjacked with a "Woo-hoo I got a new job."
73: Its possible, but I don't want to move again. I'm tired of playing the job market game. I want to find a quiet place to raise my children.
69: I'm afraid of what the kids will be like when their loaded. When Caroline was 2 we gave her a sip of beer and she got really hyper, then really fussy, and didn't sleep at all that night.
When I took a train from New York to Chicago years ago, we went through Elyria at about 3 in the morning. I was having trouble sleeping and went back to the snack bar car to get a hot chocolate. Some of the train crew was there drinking coffee and I overheard them saying that somehow the 3 people headed to Elyria had been put in different cars, so they had to open 3 doors instead of one at the station.
62: Yeah, but I've had call -- Giant Glass in my head ever since.
Rob, is this Lor/ain County CC? How long are you willing to make your commute? Rfts and I aren't native Clevelanders but we live here now and know enough people that we could probably get some people to cough up good suggestions. Shoot me an email at [obvious handle]@gmail.
But we're on the East Side, so Tarrou's advice about the weird foreign climes of the West Side may be more helpful.
If you don't mind a 35 to 45 minute commute, I'd look at Tremont and Ohio City. Both are on the very near west side and will put you very close to almost everything in the city that's worthwhile. It's a bit of a drive out to Elyria, but either neighborhood can get you on I-480 without having to negotiate the largest interchanges.
Tremont is especially worth a look; if I still lived in the area, that's where I'd be trying to live. The neighborhood is very green, walkable, and educated. The West Side Market and downtown are a ten minute drive away, and Univesity circle isn't much further.
I don't know where housing prices are right now, but the market has been stagnant for years in the entire metro area. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm looking at buying in Phoenix right now, and the thought of what the same mortgage would buy me in Cleveland is too depressing to contemplate.
Ok, I've taken my pills and am returning to glass-half-full mode. I got a new job! Everybody congratulate me!
Ok, now I'm off to get loaded with the kids.
I'm only familiar with the (very) near west side. It's probably a stretch for me to be recommending Tremont under that description, but it's a damn cool neighborhood.
I've gone out to Rocky River and Avon a few times; those areas are nice enough, but nothing to get a newcomer excited over.
Tremont and Ohio City would have been my know-nothing recommendations for somebody who wants "walkable" on the West Side as his chief concern, so... Comity!
All I know is that the best Cleveland-area high school academic bowl team is from North Olmstead. I would recommend moving there if you plan to be a helicopter parent who pushes your child into an unreasonable arms race.
All I know is that the best Cleveland-area high school academic bowl team is from North Olmstead.
my best wife is from N.O., too.
we don't have a helicopter, though. or a kid. but we have a cat who likes to eat BioFreeze. i don't expect big things from the cat.
Speaking of tenure-track issues, it's painful reading this blog sometimes. But eye-opening for anyone going into the experimental/observational sciences.
I've been doing some web research, and it looks like Lakewood is a short commutable distance with good schools. Has anyone passed through there at 3 am on Amtrak?
my best wife is from N.O., too.
My first wife is from North Olmstead.
Wow, what a cosmopolitan metropolis North Olmstead, Ohio must be, given that everybody's apparently from there.
Oddly, cleek and I live just a county apart, IIRC.
All the North Olmstead chicks come Carolina to look for marrying material.
That's because of the young blood on its school board.
52: Say, they should change their slogan to "I need to Wii!"
A joke I'm sure has never been made.
In the first year of their existence, the Kansas City soccer team was officially named "The Wiz." Their marketing slogan, plastered on billboards all over the metroplex, was (really, I swear) "You Gotta Go!" After that season, they were renamed The Wizards. A local comic did a top 5 reasons for the name change, one of which was "Tired of other teams' fans chanting 'You're Number One!' "
Rob: If you want to live in or near a small college town, Oberlin is about 15 miles to the south. Both are in Lorain County. Commuting from Cleveland could work too. North Olmstead was mall-central when I was at Oberlin. I doubt it has changed much.
Living in Oberlin you could observe incestuous college town feuds and affairs from the outside, while being condescended to by the Oberlin faculty.
People sometimes joke that the Yankees, with their humorless, controlled, close-cropped image and the way they try to use their financial clout to exert dominance over Major League Baseball, are the fascists of American sport. Well, what do you know. Chains, people. ¡Viva Ramirez!
Getting angry at Manny seems, to me, to be like getting angry at the Cookie Monster. I mean, sure, he's not human and doesn't have a human value system and is probably totally insane even inside his own frame of reference, but he's totally harmless and really sweet, so why get angry?
Oddly, cleek and I live just a county apart, IIRC.
yup. and in my case, it's sometimes very oddly.