Tony Bennet, sung at the Giants celebration today

 The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome is of another day
I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home to my city by the Bay

I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care

My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me

Marketers win the series

Giants win the series!  Whoo hoo.  Note the picture of the manager hugging and celebrating after the game.  Amazing strikeout by Sergio Romo to put it away.

Notice anything about the hat?  It's not the regular Giants hat.  In fact if you watched carefully as the game concluded, a bunch of guys came out with these world series hats, took off the Giant hats, and put on these new logo hats.  I guess the players didn't care because they had won after all.  But what's the point?  The point is that after they became champions they now belong to MLB and MLB will get the maximum money out of it, including what hat they are wearing.  It's all about the details, from the hoodies the teams were wearing in the dugout to the hats at the celebration. 

I guess I better buy one of each.  Or should I just wear my old beat up Giants hat and enjoy a beer?

This is why electric cars are not selling.

Because they don't have enough of these!  You may say all you want about the performance and range and fuel savings, but if it ain't got no sex it won't sell.  And in fact the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are both moving way less units than they need to.

Guess where I got this image?  From one of those "come on" ads on the right side of a website that is pushing free electricity from some 54 year old "patriot" who discovered a weird trick that will make everything free forever.  You know, right along side the 50 year old woman that is hated because her trick makes her skin look like a teenager so all the dermatologists hate her.

I guess there's a trick for everything, no need for studying and all that boring stuff.  Is there a government grant for that?

Incongruities

Forgive me for this one, but I just can't resist.

>  Why is the normal pencil still number 2?

Like, shouldn't it have gotten promoted by now?

Lance, so let me get this straight

Mr. Lance Armstrong had a deal with the Postal Service team for bonuses if he won the 2004/2005, and 2006 TDF (Tour de France).  As is normal in these cases the Posties (owned by Tailwind sports) took out an an insurance policy to cover them if he should actually win with a company named SCA promotions. 

He did cross the finish line first those three years but Tailwind decided not to pay Lance because Lance was "not a clean rider" despite being declared the "official winner".  Lance sued Tailwind and won a judgment of $7.5 million including interest and fees etc.

Are you following now, good, just a little more.  Now that Lance has had his victories nullified, Tailwind/SCA is demanding their money be returned.  He is no longer the "official winner" as specified in the contract.  I guess they are in the threatening letter stage but it looks likely to go to court next.

Whatever you think about cycling as a sport, I used to really enjoy it myself, it's an object lesson on how money has taken over everything.  Even the simple sport of getting on a bike and pedaling through the countryside.

Source for this is: BBC news and other recent articles.

Turning Yachting into X-Games

Our favorite billionaire, Larry Ellison is doing his best to make the America's cup sailboat racing into some kind of X-games meets sailing.  After a relatively interesting series of 45 foot catamaran races, the team is gearing up to the full size (72 foot) boats for next year.  The 45 footers had some amusing crashes, but his full size boat wiped out yesterday and got carried out to sea by the currents under the Golden Gate for 4 miles before they could coral it.  Out there, the waves apparently destroyed the sail.  Should have said "wing", sail is just so old fashioned.  This morning the boat was floating upside down next to their base a pier 80 in San Francisco.

I wonder if this will further reduce the number of competitors.  At last count it was down to 5 teams based on the estimated $40 million to mount a campaign.  Maybe when teams realize how fragile these beasts are it will knock out another team or two.

I will limit my comments about creating a class of boat that is so expensive and not seaworthy.  But, people, this ain't sailing.  It's just showing off.   But if that's what the current hipsters want to see, then enjoy.

My role as a citizen

I think I may be falling down in my role as a citizen.  I am definitely not jumping up and shopping for the "exciting" brands that I should be. And it's not just shopping, I should be buying and, well, let's face it, I'm not.

Here's what I think about some of these brands that I am missing out on.

• Abercrombie and Fitch -  Didn't they used to make actual sporting equipment?  Fishing poles and such.  Before they got into the soft porn business.  Sort of like Eddie Bauer before they cut up canoes for display cases and actually sold canoes.

• Hollister - Isn't that an actual town near Salinas?  The first Hollister shirt I saw was in Europe.  I asked the wearer if he was from there and just got a blank look.  Maybe I am behind on these things.  Hollister to me has the image as above
• Paul Frank - Having a stupid/cute monkey on a tee shirt is a nice idea.  Although now that I actually recognize it my daughter tells me it's so "years ago".
• South Pole - OK, so those clothes will obviously never be useful if you are anywhere near the pole so why pretend?  Or am I missing something completely, like here?
• Mephisto - Does the Devil have a brand of shoes?  Good for walking on hot lava perhaps?  

According to the website below, South Pole is rated as making you feel powerful.  Hello people, these all just made up attributes to sell clothes.  These attributes are a complete miss with me.  South Pole is just a sweat shirt that says that on it.  I guess I am missing the hours of ads and images that will build up the image in my psyche.  My loss, I guess.

Brands taken from this list that you can sort their attributes.  Enjoy.