The Thick Black Storm

I love a good thunderstorm.

I especially like driving in them. I am neither careless nor overly cautious (each is dangerous).

I left the gym last night to one of those spring thunderstorms that is both cold and humid; a glorious torrent of a downpour with thick, dark billowing clouds that seemed to stretch to the edge of the world, brilliant flashes of lightning and the cracks and rumbles of thunder both near and far.

But what to listen to on the way home?

After a few moments I cued up my iPod to Hans Zimmer's The Thin Red Line and rolled out of the parking garage. Everything fell into place from there. The music seemed to embody with precision and perfection the atmosphere of it all. Naturally that's just me trying to make sense of my universe by creating meaning where there might be none. We're all human; that's what we do.

I cruised home making it through the first half of the album (the better half of a very good album); thirty minutes of aural/climatic symbiosis. It actually made for a terrifically relaxing drive bringing me to a near Zenlike state with my automobile.

At least from my vantage point.

History Lesson

Obviously I'm a few days late on this, but baseball season did start up in earnest Monday. Most of the baseball pundits and many a Cubs fan seem to think the Redbirds are going to finish in the basement this year. To those people I say, "Alright, I guess". But as an ardent lover of my Cardinals I feel it my duty to present the following:

Things That Have Happened Since the Cubs Last Won the World Series (1908):

World War I

Communism rose

Gustav Mahler died

The first red scare

The Cardinals had 3 triple crown winners (Rogers Hornsby twice)

The first solo flight across the ocean

Movies got sound

World War II

Nuclear weapons

A Missourian was elected president

The second red scare

Hippies

A president resigned

Professional football and basketball became relevant to American sporting culture

The Kansas City Royals won the World Series (1985)(!)

Communism fell

14 new MLB teams have been created...

7 of them have won a World Series

The Athletics and Braves have both moved...twice.

And finally...

The Cardinals have appeared in the World Series 17 times, winning 10