Off-Topic Rant: “And I” Is Not Always Correct

My boss Phil likes to talk himself up, and yesterday I heard Phil jokingly say something like “After blah blah blah, HR was not happy with Nick and I.”

I’ve no doubt that the intended subtext of this was:
1) I am a badass who doesn’t care if HR isn’t happy
2) I am a smart person who knows that “…and I” is always correct and “…and me” is never correct.

Phil is pretty much wrong about both. I didn’t say anything to Phil because… you know. Boss.

…But what I would’ve liked to have pointed out to him is that “and” doesn’t change the pronoun’s role in the sentence. Which pronoun gets used still comes down to who’s doing what to whom.

Fortunately, this is easy to get right. All you have to do is take the other person out of the sentence and see if it still works.

Billy and I saw Jake deGrom at the ballpark.
I saw Jake deGrom at the ballpark.

Jake deGrom signed autographs for Billy and me.
Jake deGrom signed autographs for me.

End of rant. Thank you very much for your time.

Off Topic: Looking For A Current Comic To Read

I recently read that Marvel is going to put the Fantastic Four comic on hiatus in 2015.

I loved the FF as a kid, and when I got back into comics 20-or-so years ago, the FF was one of the first titles I picked up. I’ve been reading it ever since.

…So when I saw that the plug is being pulled, even temporarily, on this title that I’ve put so much time into, my reaction to the announcement was a hearty “Oh, thank God!”.

You weren’t expecting that, were you?

Jonathan Hickman’s recent run was decent, but for the most part the FF has been dull and uninspired for years.  Marvel seems to have no clue what to do with the Fantastic Four… or perhaps don’t want to do anything interesting with the FF being that the movie rights to the Fantastic Four reside elsewhere.

Removing FF from my pull list is the easy decision… the hard part is replacing it. I look through the racks, I scan through Previews magazine and there’s very little that jumps out at me.

This is where you come in… Hopefully…  Are any of you reading an ongoing title that you’re particularly fond of?

I’ll give you an idea of what I’m looking for:

• I appreciate both writing and artwork, but great writing seems to be harder to find these days.
• I don’t care for the supernatural, especially vampires, zombies or magic.
• Comics that are violent just for violence’s sake don’t hold my interest.
• No major crossover events.

Giving my money to a company other than Marvel or DC would be a definite plus.

What I’m currently enjoying: Astro City, Daredevil

Older titles I’ve enjoyed:  Alias/The Pulse, Promethea, Casanova, Strangers In Paradise, Marvels (Busiek/Ross), Rex Mundi, The Ostrander run of Martian Manhunter.

Current Titles I used to like at one point but no longer do: Powers, Savage Dragon.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Off-Topic And Buying Time: My Bottom Ten Beatles Tracks

What are the 10 weakest Beatles tracks? That’s precisely the question I asked when I started pondering ways to write a quick post.

For the record, I’m limiting this to official releases through 1970. No “Free As A Bird” or “What’s The New Mary Jane” here.

Revolution 9, from the album “The Beatles” (a.k.a. The White Album) – I can still remember the first time I heard this, I spent 8 minutes and 22 seconds waiting for the actual song to start… and then it was over.

Good Night, “The Beatles”  – As far as I’m concerned, the White Album ends with Paul’s little doodle after Cry Baby Cry:  “Can you take me back where I came from, can you take me back…”

The Inner Light, B-Side to “Lady Madonna” – I first heard this in the early 1980’s, when I found the 45 at a yard sale. When I got it home and listened to it, the disappointment was palpable.

Till There Was You, “With The Beatles” – A show tune? Really? Well, I guess they needed something to play for the Queen.

Honey Pie, “The Beatles” – I would be far from the first person to state that The White Album is a tremendously uneven effort.

Mr. Moonlight, “Beatles For Sale” – The song doesn’t live up to John’s introductory wail.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, “The Beatles” – Years ago, this song would’ve fared much better. It has not aged well.

Bad Boy, originally on the U.S. album “Beatles VI” – not a bad song, but a relatively weak effort.

I Wanna Be Your Man, “With The Beatles” – This Lennon/McCartney song was recorded and released by the Rolling Stones a few weeks before the Beatles version.

A Taste Of Honey, “Please Please Me” – Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I have to say that Herb’s version is far better. Heck, I even prefer the version by The Hassles, a Long Island “Blue-Eyed Soul” band from the 1960’s that featured a young Billy Joel.

Please note that some decidedly odd tracks like “Wild Honey Pie” or “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” did not make the cut. Sue me, I like them….

…And I freakin’ love “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”!  Let’s hear it for Dennis! HA HEY!

So tell me I’m an idiot. Tell me I’m deranged. Tell me what Beatle-y travesty I missed while quickly whipping this post together.

 

 

Shameless Plug: COMC sale!

COMC is having promotion running through this Wednesday, 7/23. I and many other sellers are running promotions and there’s free shipping on 20 or more items (with some qualifications, see site for details)

Every card in my inventory is discounted!  Check it out HERE!

I’ve got baseball from 1961 to 2013, some hockey, football, basketball and non-sports.

Extra discounts on:  2012 & 2013 inserts, Ichiro, NASCAR, A-Rod and many others!

For those who haven’t read my “About my COMC Store” tab, I’ve been selling on COMC for over three years. I sell unwanted cards from my collection, and use the proceeds to buy cards I want. I’m not trying to conquer the world, corner the market or be any kind of power seller. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

COMC Sellers!

If you’re having a promotion, leave a link or your UserID in the comments, and I promise I will check it out!

Unrelated update: More songs with numbers in the titles
“Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five” – Wings
“99 Problems” – Jay-Z
“Twenty-Five Percent For Nothing” – Yes
“Four Little Diamonds” – Electric Light Orchestra
“One Of These Nights” – The Eagles
“The Lucky One” – Alison Krauss And Union Station
“One Toke Over The Line” – Brewer And Shipley
“One World” – Dire Straits
“One Long Pair Of Eyes” – Robyn Hitchcock

…and two very different songs with the same title:
“One Of These Days” – Paul McCartney (“One of these days, when my feet are on the ground…”)
“One Of These Days” – Pink Floyd (“One of these days I’m going to cut you into little pieces!”)

Off-Topic: Top Ten Songs Which Contain “One”

Wrapping up the countdown that’s gone on all day… This post is songs with “One” in the title:

1. “One Thing Leads To Another” – The Fixx
2. “One Way Out” – The Allman Brothers Band
3. “One Way Or Another” – Blondie
4. “One More Minute” – ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
5. “One More Time” – Joe Jackson
6. “A Quick One, While He’s Away” – The Who
7. “Little Blue One” – Cowboy Mouth
8. “The One Thing” – INXS
9. “You Just May Be The One” – The Monkees
10. “I’m Your No. 1 Fan” – The Beautiful South

Well-Known Songs which didn’t make the cut:

• “One Week” – Barenaked Ladies
• “One” – Three Dog Night
• “One Step Beyond” – Madness
• “One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces” – Ben Folds Five
• “Love Plus One” – Haircut 100
• “One After 909” – The Beatles

At the last minute, I realized I forgot about other numbers…

• “Too Low For Zero” – Elton John
• “Saved By Zero” – The Fixx
• “10,000 Angels” – Godley And Creme
• “22,000 Days” – The  Moody Blues
• “2000 Miles” – The Pretenders
• “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” – The Proclaimers
• “If I Had $1000000” – Barenaked Ladies
• “84,000 Different Delusions” – Shawn Colvin

What am I counting down to?  Well, there are two reasons for this series of posts.  First off, it’s an experiment regarding my blogroll difficulties of the past 6 weeks.  Second, I’ve realized that I’ve been spreading myself a bit thin lately, so I’m going to take a few days off from blogging and concentrate on my collection and other related things.

See you in a few!

 

Off-Topic: Top Ten Songs From Three To Two

My pseudo-countdown makes its final approach…

1. “Gimme Three Steps” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” – Pink Floyd
3. “Number Three” – They Might Be Giants
4. “One World (Not Three)” – The Police
5. “Be My Number Two” – Joe Jackson
6. “Two Of Us” – The Beatles
7. “I’ve Got Two Legs” – Monty Python
8. “Two Kinds Of Laughter” – Sara Hickman
9. “Death On Two Legs” – Queen
10. “Goody Two Shoes” – Adam And The Ants

A well-known song which didn’t make the cut (for good reason):  “Knock Three Times” – Tony Orlando And Dawn

The next post will feature One.

Off-Topic: Top Ten Songs From Six To Four

Continuing the countdown-of-sorts that started with 99 and rapidly comes down to 6, 5 and 4:

1. “25 Or Six To 4” – Chicago
2. “Six Blade Knife” – Dire Straits
3. “(This Song Is Just) Six Words Long” – ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
4. “Take Five” – Dave Brubeck
5. “Five Guys Named Moe” – Louis Jordan
6. “Five O’Clock World” – The Vogues
7. “I would Die 4 U” – Prince
8. “News 4 U” – Fitz And The Tantrums
9. “Four Sticks” – Led Zeppelin
10. “Four-Eyed Girl” – Rhett Miller

The next post will feature Three and Two.

 

Off-Topic: Top Ten Songs From Nine To Seven

Resuming the countdown-of sorts…

1. “#9 Dream” – John Lennon
2. “Love Potion #9” – The Searchers
3. “Nine Times Blue” – The Monkees
4. “Driver 8” – R.E.M.
5. “Eight” – Sara Hickman
6. “Eight Days A Week” – The Beatles
7. “Eight Miles High” – The  Birds
8. “8 Track” – Dada
9. “The Seventh Son” – Mose Allison
10. “Seven” – They Might Be Giants

The next post will feature Six, Five and Four.

Off-Topic: Top Ten Songs From Ninety-Nine To Ten

…or more technically accurate, from “Neun und Neunzig” to Ten:

1. “99 Luftballons” – Nena (Has to be the German version, the English version is lame)
2. ” ’92 Subaru” – Fountains Of Wayne
3. “88 Lines About 44 Women” – The Nails
4. “60 Acres” – James McMurtry
5. “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” – Paul Simon
6. “Eighteen” – Alice Cooper
7. “Fifteen Minutes” – Kirsty MacColl
8. “Mornings Eleven” – The Magic Numbers
9. “Big Ten Inch Record” – Aerosmith
10. “Ten Years Gone” – Led Zeppelin

Well-known songs which didn’t make the cut:

• “Questions 67 And 68” – Chicago
• “You’re Sixteen” – Ringo Starr
• “Sexy + 17” – Stray Cats

Lesser-known Songs Which Didn’t Make The Cut:

• “Ten Layers Down” – Let’s Active
• “Ten Fingers” – The Pursuit Of Happiness
• “I Spent My Last $10 On Birth Control And Beer” – Two Nice Girls

The next post will feature Nine, Eight and Seven.

 

 

Some Soccer Cards While It’s Still The World Cup

Like any red-blooded American, I’ve lost track of the World Cup since the USA was eliminated… But I know it’s still going on, which means I can still share some Association Football cards and pretend to be relevant.

Speaking of Association Football, I need to air a grievance… People in other countries keep poking fun at Americans, saying “The rest of the world calls it football”.  There’s just one thing;  the last I checked, “the rest of the world” includes Canada, and they also call it soccer!  Such snotty comments are downright anti-Canadian, and I won’t stand for it!

Anyway, what I have here a smorgasbord (or a “borgashmord”, for those old enough to know who Mason Reese is) of various soccer acquisitions over the past 25 years…

Most recent is this Chris Armas All-MLS Team card from 2000 Upper Deck MLS. Armas is part of my Holy Trinity of soccer players I saw with the Long Island Rough Riders back in the 1990’s.

There’s way too much going on with this card, but it does look better in person. Trust me.

The other two thirds of my Holy Trinity are Tony Meola and Giovanni Savarese… I’ve got a few cards of Armas and Meola, but I’m still hunting for my first Savarese.

Sticking with Upper Deck, here’s a 1993 UD World Cup card of Colombian player Carlos Valderrama. I’ll admit, I saved this card from a purge solely because of his trademark hair.

While doing some quick research, I saw that Valderrama played for the Tampa Bay Mutiny, one of the inaugural MLS teams… which made me wonder what happened to the Mutiny? Turns out they were contracted in 2001. Just as well, their uniforms were nowhere near as good as the Tampa Bay Rowdies of NASL fame.

Lee Dixon is A WILD AND CRAZY GUY!!!!!!

And he is ready for foxes!!!!

I’m just full of 1970’s references today, aren’t I?

Here we are finding the back, which is ready for swinging with American chicks!

This 1990-91 Pro Set FA card is a survivor of a cheap wax box I bought years ago. After opening the packs, I had a couple of hundred cards of guys I’d never heard of, and I didn’t know what to do with them, so they largely got filed away. When I find them again, I still won’t know what to do with them.

Speaking of foreign soccer sets made by American companies, here’s a card from the 1991-92 Score Italian Football set. Somewhere along the line I acquired a handful of these, and kept this card because it amused me that the only word I understood on the whole card was “Bomber”.

…OK, fine, “Bomber”, “Score” and “Printed in Italy”.

I think that pretty much covers my soccer cards, just in time for Germany to beat Argentina in the World Cup finals… and now that I’ve officially made that prediction, enjoy watching the Netherlands and Brazil on Sunday.