nick hall
In June of 1971, just days before his 26-year-old son, Michael, got married, future-U.S. President Ronald Reagan sent him the following letter of advice. It really is quite stunning. Michael Reagan Manhattan Beach, California June 1971 Dear Mike: Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won’t. You’ve heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the “unhappy marrieds” and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it. Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn’t know won’t hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn’t take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors. Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps. Love, Dad P.S. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day.
Pimlico race track, Preakness weekend 1980.
Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.— Holden Caulfield 
flipflopflyball: This is an idea that has been floating around in my head for a few months, and for obvious reasons, I got around to realising it this weekend. Each dot represents one word of the song. The colours represent who is saying that word. Sometimes, I’m asked if there are prints of my work available; I don’t normally do that sort of thing, but on the off-chance that you would like a print of this graphic, I’m providing a hi-res TIFF (254 x 321 mm / 10 x 12.6 inches; zipped file; 18.1MB) that you can download and have printed. You don’t have to pay for it—I certainly don’t want to profit from it—but if you do want to download and print it, it would be nice if you would consider donating something to a cancer charity.  Here are some links to cancer charities in different countries. If your home country is not listed, and you want to donate, just do some Googlin’. Canada: www.cancer.ca UK: www.cancerresearchuk.org USA: www.cancer.org Here’s the Mediafire link to the hi-res file: fightforyourright.zip
“Now my name is M.C.A. I’ve got a license to kill I think you know what time it is it’s time to get ill Now what do we have here an outlaw and his beer I run this land, you understand I make myself clear.” — Adam Yauch (MCA)
Wilson Betemit pushes the Orioles 6 games over .500 for the first time since July 20, 2005.
The Discovery’s last flight.
I’m a jaded, wounded Orioles fan so I don’t see any way this hitting keeps up. Last night in Chicago the O’s took the game into extra innings with solo home runs by Nolan Reimold and Adam Jones. Later in the tenth Matt Wieters jacked a grand slam to shut the door. The Orioles now lead the league in home runs. Later next month when the Orioles are on a 10-game losing streak I’ll look back at this post and remember how much fun the beginning of the season was.
Opening Day 2012 photo set. Baltimore Orioles-Minnesota Twins.