Night Owl Cards

Every snowstorm begins with just a few flakes. It helps prepare for the blizzard to come, although "blizzard" is one of the most overused weather terms. I live somewhere where we can get three inches an hour and I still wouldn't call that a blizzard. I'd prefer a few flakes at first, and then all of the big snow stuff arrive while I'm sleeping. That's what happened with the latest storm this past weekend. A bunch of wind and snow-spraying that amounted to not much on Saturday and then I woke up on Sunday and I was clearing a foot-and-a-half off my car. I'd equate the situation with the 1982 Fleer storm surge that's arrived here at the house. Once I posted an '82 Fleer list, the heavens opened, and now I'm digging out. The Fleer pile is quite high and the doctor says I shouldn't take all of it on at once (he also says "lift with your legs"). So I'm starting slowly with just a few flakes, some '82 Fleer cards sent by ...

I won a contest over at The Collector's blog that was centered around my favorite kind of music, alternative rock. The best part of my victory is I finally was able to get something out of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. For the last 30 years, I seem to be the only person who cannot grasp the RHCP's appeal. In fact, if I ever dared speak of my disinterest in the band, especially in the late '90s, I would be showered with derision. Sorry, sole arbiters of what's musically cool, they just don't do it for me. But my guess of what song would be ranked No. 2 on The Collector's local radio station's countdown of the greatest 92 alternative rock songs was "Under the Bridge" by the RHCP because my goodness every station, TV music channel, etc., likes to overplay that song like it cures cancer by the note. In typical, RHCP fan-boy fashion, the station's voters actually put "Under the Bridge" at No. 1, ahead of "Smells Like Teen Spiri...

I'm probably making a bigger deal about my appearance in Beckett's vintage magazine than some feel it warrants. Who cares, right? Nobody reads magazines anymore. It's not like it's Time or Sports Illustrated. Some old set from the '70s? You just have yourself that little party, old man. OK, I will. For me, from an early age, the folks whose names appeared as the bylines in magazines were even more fascinating and mysterious than the people they were chronicling. I saw pictures of the people being featured. I read their thoughts and learned their backgrounds. I knew stuff about them. The person writing it? I didn't know one thing about them. I read a lot of magazines as a youngster and into my teenage years and then in college. Time. Sports Illustrated. Inside Sports. Baseball Digest. Baseball Magazine. Life. Newsweek. The New Yorker. Mad. Cracked. Rolling Stone. Spin. National Geographic. Ranger Rick. Sesame Street Magazine. People. Us. TV Guide. Reader...

Normally, I don't let the seasons dictate what I discuss. I'm primarily a baseball guy and a baseball card collector and it seems ridiculous to me to stop talking about such things just because we're in the offseason. I can't turn my love on and off like that. However ... There's almost two feet of snow on the ground, thanks to the storm that cut through the Northeast the last day or so, and there are two supposedly significant football games on the television. I can hear words like "Brees" and "play-action" and "THAT'S PASS INTERFERENCE! " These are not baseball words. And I'm freezing. It's practically silly to discuss baseball today. Fortunately, I have some football cards I need to post. Remember Jonathan? That guy who sent me the big box of cards? You though I was done with that big box? You think I ask too many questions? OK, I'll be quiet now and show some cards: Jonathan sent a whole bunch of Score ...