Citi/Taxpayer Field

That's what two New York City Council members want to call the New York Mets' new ballpark, opening in 2009.

Citigroup owns the naming rights to the park, and announced months ago that the field would be known as Citi Field. The kicker, though (man, there's always one of these!) is they're getting bailed out by the federal government - and, by extension, the taxpayers - to the tune of billions and billions of dollars, so renaming (part of) the park in honor of the people Citigroup owes for its survival doesn't seem all that unreasonable.

Personally, I love the idea. I love it. Besides my disgust at bailout after bailout after bailout to these huge corporations, I also hate the New York Mets. How much would it suck to have to play at Citi/Taxpayer Field?

Back (and Better Than Ever?)

Okay, so I'm back on the East Coast.

Since I left the tri-state area for the rocky hills of the Bay Area, crazy things have happened.  Sarah Palin spoke to Katie Couric, John McCain kinda-maybe-not really suspended his campaign, Barack Obama won the first presidential debate, the Mets blew another shot at the postseason and the Phillies are once again National League East champions.

Being on the West Coast is always a therapeutic experience for me.  The air is fresher and the mood is calmer than the frantic, frenetic East.  San Francisco itself is a truly incredible city: it is a a progressive, modern, urban environment sprawled atop a breathtakingly beautiful natural environment; in many ways, I find it to be the Last Great Hope for America.  Its citizens are friendly, open-minded, informed and diverse.  Everyone seems to be in a good mood. I would be too, I suppose, if I lived there.

But I'm back now, and I feel refreshed and recharged from the experience, and also from the things that happened while I was gone.  I am at an all-time high in confidence that Barack Obama will be our next President, and am eagerly anticipating the Phillies' second-straight postseason appearance.  With the economy in ruins and the future of our country seemingly hanging in a tenuous balance, the world at large seems to be on the precipice of disaster.  But from my relatively small, singular vantage point, things right now are looking up.  And that I will cherish.

It's good to be back.

De Ja Vu in New York?

Are the New York Mets in the process of collapsing in September, and thus losing another division title to the Phillies, for the second season in a row?

2008 gets weirder and weirder.