the coffee philosopher

Posted on July 18, 2013July 17, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Is Florida Over Rick Scott?

I was reading about a poll that had Rick Scott losing to any Democrat with a pulse.

Personally, I think Scott is a sleazy scam artist who picked a politically lucky year to buy himself a state with a personal fortune partly accrued by defrauding taxpayers. But I don’t think that most folks feel quite so vehemently about him.

Yet his numbers are consistently in the toilet. It’s a boost for him when his approval numbers creep into the 40s and when his disapproval numbers are only a little bit above 50.

My suspicion is that he’s suffering from the same malaise that struck former New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine. I was working on some races in South Jersey in 2009, when he lost to Chris Christie and got a pretty good feel for what happened.

The best way I found to explain what happened is that the people of New Jersey were ‘over’ Corzine. They didn’t hate him. Didn’t think he was bad guy. Or even necessarily a bad governor. But they were over him. And that’s why nothing Corzine did could move his numbers into a place where he could win. Jersey voters had moved on.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (speaking of him as a movie star, not a politician) was the biggest star in the world for a while. His movies were sure fire hits. Then, that stopped. Sure, doing another Terminator movie could always bring ’em in, but the days when whatever he did was a hit were over. Moviegoers hadn’t started disliking him. But in their hearts, they’d already moved on.

If that’s what has happened to Scott, his options are narrow and, no matter how much he spends (or how much companies and groups with Tallahassee interests spend), he could find it impossible to get above 45-47%.

This doesn’t change what we already know: that Floridians are not fans of Scott the Governor and that Scott and his allies will focus all their fire on trying to render his opponent so repellent that he squeaks by in a low turnout election (which will be harder than you might think if the opponent is Charlie Crist; yes, Crist has baggage, but Florida knows Crist; all the stuff he’ll be blasted with – flip flopper, etc. – won’t be news to voters; they know it, they’ve already heard it, and they’ve already decided that the still find him to be an okay guy; that’s the problem with figures with such wide name recognition: they’re already defined in the public’s eye before the ad men have had a chance to do it for them).

Posted on July 17, 2013July 15, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

‘The Horns of Nimon’ By Terrance Dicks (New Year’s Resolution, Book Twenty-Nine)

Growing up, it was far easier to read the novelizations than to watch the actual episodes. The episodes were usually on well past my bed time and each complete story arc was typically broken up into something like 4-6 half hour installments on PBS. Very easy to miss episodes.

I read and re-read The Horns of Nimon over and over again. And again. It was one of my absolute favorites and it was recently rediscovered in my mother’s home. She mailed it to me and I read it again.

I liked it.

The story has also sorts of little references to the legend of Minotaur (Skonnos=Knossos; Seth=Theseus; Anethans=Athenans; Nimon=Minotaur).

The novelization, as is common, was written by the primary script writer for that season.

It’s not literature. It’s short. Everything is, at best, adequate. Unless you watch a lot of Doctor Who, because sometimes, when reading, a line that seemed dead on the page, suddenly came alive, because it was a line by the Doctor and I could hear Tom Baker, who played the Doctor for this episode and who, of course, was the greatest Doctor, deliver the line.

Posted on July 16, 2013May 30, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Tomorrow Is ‘Take Your Poet To Work Day!’

Posted on July 15, 2013July 12, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Happy Monday

Posted on July 14, 2013July 12, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Posted on July 13, 2013July 10, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Posted on July 12, 2013July 12, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Happy Birthday!

It’s Henry David Thoreau’s birthday! He turns one hundred and ninety-six years old today.

And yet his writings still feel fresh. Good stuff.

Posted on July 12, 2013July 9, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Weekend Reading – Jane Austen Is Particularly Tasty

Reading Jane Austen might be more than normally good for your brain.

Life as a bookseller.

More life as a bookseller.

Posted on July 11, 2013July 10, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

A Little Gripe About Tottenham

I like Tottenham Hotspurs. I play them on FIFA13. I root for them to win against any other team in England.

And they’ve done some great things in the off season. Picking up Paulinho? Great move. Their midfield is stacked, whether they play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, they’ve got both great starters and top class depth in the midfield. And I hear they’re close to picking up a speedy winger for some depth on the outside, which is important, because they could look downright sluggish if Aaron Lennon or Gareth Bale weren’t available.

But, c’mon guys. Everyone and their uncle knows that the difference between their fifth place finish last year and getting into the top four (which has some big implications) was the lack of a top striker, someone capable of scoring twenty goals a season.

Nothing has been done to fix this.

Sunderland, a mediocre team who were almost relegated, bought the en fuego American, Jozy Altidore (yah, Jozy!). Spurs… nothing.

The nearly as mediocre Norwich City bought the highly touted (and awesomely named) Ricky Van Wolfswinkel (I told you his name was awesome). Spurs… nothing.

Atletico Madrid, in Spain, pipped Spurs to one of their targets, the clinical veteran, David Villa. Spurs… nothing.

Mario Gomez left Bayern Munich and bought up by Fiorentina for a cut rate price. Spurs… nothing.

Little ol’ Swansea in Wales seems about ready to lock up the highly touted Wilfried Bony. Spurs is about ready to lock up… nothing.

Now, their number one striking target for the last couple of years, Leandro Damiao, is making eyes at Napoli. Ugh.

Tons of lesser teams have bought quality strikers, while Spurs are still dependent on the lazy Emmanuel Adebayor and the hard working, but insufficiently prolific Jermaine Defoe. Ugh.

It appears they might wind up overpaying for Christian Benteke, who wowed the league in his first season in England, but could turn out to be a hugely expensive one season wonder, but, for heaven’s sake, pull the the trigger on someone!

Fix this. Fix this now.