Nobody asked me, but the way the Orioles are playing so far — giving up runs early in games, scoring the winning runs in the middle to late innings — means, for night games at least, you can watch both “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” before flipping to MASN in time for the comeback.
A reader asked me to “pressure the Orioles to televise their games on broadcast television [because they] don’t have cable and can’t watch them. MLB has made baseball a pay to play game.” Well, yeah and duh. Why would the Orioles, who try to maximize revenue every way possible — have you seen the beer prices this season? — allow games on free TV again when they own MASN? Sorry, but I have more important pleas to make to the Orioles, like signing Adley Rutschman to a long-term deal.
One more baseball item: I like fun, clever dugout celebrations of home runs and clutch hits. But the Orioles’ “sprinkler” is not one of them.
Nobody asked me about the Lamar Jackson deal, and that’s fine because the whole thing gave me a headache. But here’s how it looks: The Ravens always wanted him to stay in Baltimore, and they ended up getting him without matching that ridiculous Deshaun Watson deal in Cleveland. Fans who had grown grumpy about Jackson will perk up again, especially if he plays a full season and takes the Ravens past a wild card game. If he doesn’t, the team’s ownership and management will look as if they just made a bad bet (like the Orioles with Chris Davis), head coach John Harbaugh will leave the building, the Ravens will draft a new quarterback and life will mosey on.
Nobody asked me, because I’m not a psychologist, but it seems to me that all this money could have one of two effects on 26-year-old Lamar Jackson: It could motivate him to be an even better quarterback and take Baltimore to the Super Bowl. Or, it could mess with his wiring, plaguing him with feelings of unworthiness, forcing him into a bottomless psychological hell of profoundly negative thoughts and bad decisions as he tries to prove he deserves all that moolah. It could go either way. (OK, I must admit: That last part — about cracking under pressure — I was projecting my own emotional profile onto Jackson. It’s why I never wanted to make the big bucks.)
Nobody asked me, but if you run a restaurant and get a lousy online review from a patron, your response — if you decide to give one — should be neither defensive nor snarky. It should go something like this: “Sorry. Please come back. We promise to get it right next time.”
Speaking of food: I’ve discovered the secret to really great roasted potatoes: Rendered duck fat. I know, unless you own ducks you’re willing to render, it’s expensive. But you don’t need that much. A couple of tablespoons, tossed over peeled and parboiled potatoes before roasting, will do. Way better than vegetable oil, better than butter.
Nobody asked me, but here’s a streaming recommendation: “Patriot,” a two-season series on Amazon Prime that I only recently watched after a tip from a neighbor. It’s about a troubled intelligence officer, a black ops guy, who endures multiple ordeals with a little help from his friends and family. It’s a comedy, it’s a drama, and it practically qualifies as a musical.
Nobody asked me, but the U.S. Census Bureau needs to come up with a better measure of the nation’s poverty rate than the one they’ve been using since the mid-1960s. It’s not realistic. This year, for instance, only families of four that earn $30,000 or less will be deemed officially poor. Are they kidding? The formula that ends with that number cannot possibly be adequate, and, as a result, we get an unrealistic picture of true financial hardship, which begins well above $30,000.
The government ought to consider the more comprehensive measurement that United Way developed over the last 10 years. It’s called “ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.” It takes into consideration all the expenses faced by families — housing, child care, food, taxes, etc. — and then measures the gap between the actual cost of living and what people are able to earn. United Way of Central Maryland just released its latest report on ALICE households, those unable to meet expenses, and found that while 10% of the state’s households met the Federal Poverty Level threshold, 38% of our neighbors (nearly 900,000 households) cannot afford the basics in their communities.
Nobody asked me, but Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Democrat representing Maryland’s 8th District, is a profile in courage and decency. In the midst of chemotherapy treatments, Raskin showed his prowess as a constitutional scholar by brilliantly dismantling the bizarre assertions of Republican colleagues that the 2nd Amendment gives Americans the right to armed rebellion against the government. “Indeed,” Raskin wrote in a statement issued to the media on the 28th anniversary of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing, “in a half-dozen places, the Constitution treats ‘insurrection’ and ‘rebellion’ not as protected rights but as serious crimes against our government and people.” The congressman just completed his treatments for lymphoma and, in a heartfelt letter, thanked Marylanders and others for their concern and encouragement and “beautiful gifts of bandanas, homemade scarves and sweaters, Capitol Police baseball caps, hospital scrubs, wool hats, chocolate chip cookies, mandel bread, pea soup, vegan matzo ball soup and gorgeous paintings, poems and letters that I will treasure forever.”
()