My Own Century Club

With this post, my blog turns 100. Not 100 years old, but I have reached a century of posts on blogspot.com. What a momentous occasion…seriously, I know that none of you that are reading this probably care, but I do. I have been writing blogs on and off for five years now. I’ve written about many things. I have postulated, analyzed, researched, humored on, capitulated, and made fun of several topics over those years. I have done so with little more help than an internet connection, a healthy appetite for learning, and a superb wit. What am I going to do now that I have joined the century club of bloggers? I am going to write a blog about all the famous (or infamous) 100s I can think of, then go and take a nap. Oh, you mean long term…I will continue blogging three times a week until I run out of ideas/topics or I find something better to do with my time (maybe a girlfriend). So here we go on the top 100s I can think of.

Of course we know that 100 years is a century and there are many century clubs out there. Many of them are night clubs, dance halls, and lounges in major cities throughout the United States. The Century Club is also a fictional gentleman's club in Manhattan for wealthy executives set in the Marvel Comics Universe, specifically in the Spider-Man titles. The Texas Century Club is The Texas Ornithological Society's challange to record 100 species of birds in 100 Texas counties. One of the best ways Texas Aggies can demonstrate leadership and keep the treasured traditions of Texas A&M alive is by giving back to the University through their Century Club (yeah, I included that, and I am a little ashamed). The Century Club of California was founded in 1888 as a private women's club. The Century Club may well be the longest ongoing tradition associated with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference on Education. The Travelers’ Century Club is a unique travel club limited to travelers who have visited 100 hundred or more countries. The Wine Century Club is a club for people who have tried 100 different wine grape varieties, and others interested in the concept. For my friends and I, the century club Is taking one shot a minute for 100 minutes (it is a derivation of power hour used for special occasions).

What about the year 100? What can we do with that? Year 100 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire that year bricks became the primary building material. The Roman Army reached 300,000 soldiers. And the Emperor Trajan created a policy intended to restore the former economic supremacy of Italy. In Europe, lions had become extinct in the Balkans by this date. Pakores, the last king of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom, took his throne in Asia in the year 100. And the Chinese began widespread use of paper starting around this year. In the Americas, the Hopewell tradition began in what is now Ohio in this year. The Mexican cultural center of Teotihuacan reached a population of 50,000 and the Moche civilization emerges and starts building an advanced society in present-day Peru. In religion during the year 100, the appearance of the first Christian dogma and formulas regarding morality are attributed to this year. The compilation of the Kama sutra began in India in the year 100. And the Gospel of John is believed to have been written around the year 100.

There are plenty of quantities of 100 out there and the number 100 is widely utilized in several fields. 100 (one hundred) (Roman numeral C, for centum) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. One hundred is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 10²). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is "hecto-". One hundred is the basis of percentages (literally "per hundred"), with 100% being a full amount. The atomic number of fermium is 100. On the Celsius scale, 100 degrees is the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level. Most of the world's currencies are divided into 100 subunits; for example, one euro is one hundred cents and one pound sterling is one hundred pence. The U.S. hundred-dollar bill has Benjamin Franklin's portrait; the "Benjamin" is the largest U.S. bill in print. Maxim magazine compiles a list of women each year that are seen as attractive and puts them on their Hot 100 list. Billboard creates a weekly list of songs ranked by popularity that is deemed their Top 100. And if you search “top 100” on the internet, you can find hundreds of lists of top 100 things from wedding songs, to poems, and even federal government contractors. The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual favorite song list based on the votes of Australian youth radio station Triple J’s listeners. “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History”, is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart. 1 vs. 100 is a game show created by Endemol that is aired in several countries. The game pits one person against 100 others for a chance to win a large cash prize. There are 100 members of the United States Senate. 100 is the number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set. "The First Hundred Days" is an arbitrary benchmark of a President of the United States' performance at the beginning of his or her term (ask Obama how his went). The number 100 appears in the titles of numerous books, films, TV shows, episodes of TV shows, songs, etc. The number of yards in an American football field (not including the end zones) is 100, which is also the minimum distance in yards for a Par 3 on a golf course. It is the record number of points scored in one NBA game by a single player, set by Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962. When a TV series reaches 100 episodes, it is generally considered viable for syndication. (For shows picked up midseason, this point is generally reached during a prime time series' 5th season). I guess that means my blog is fit for syndication.

Ok, now I am starting to bore myself with all this “100” stuff. I hope everyone realizes that reaching this milestone hasn’t come easy. I work hard the hours and sometimes days before I post a blog to make it the most interesting thing I can produce (except for maybe this one). So, here’s to another 100 blog posts and hopefully it won’t take five years to get there. Peace out.

Click for More Interesting Facts About the Number 100

The Babaganoush Sports Beat

Well, here we go again. It looks like the Rangers are going to have to get used to playing the second best team in their division. Just as it was five days ago, this is a big series. Now that the A's are actually closer to first place than the Angels, it would behoove the Rangers to do to the A's as they did to the Angels over the weekend. All hope must be crushed.

As with last weekend's series it's easy to see why this is a big one for the opponent. For one, the A's are 7 1/2 games back and have the opportunity to almost cut that in half. These are the types of series that you read about as "statement games" if things go right for the underdog. Secondly, while there's still a lot of baseball to go, there's really no time like the present to make their ascent if they have one in them.

After this chunk of AL West-y goodness, the Rangers don't really play another block of AL West games until the last half of September. If a true challenger is going to emerge, it has to start happening quickly. Here's where it gets tricky, however. In addition to the possibility to being down only 4 1/2 games, the A's could--and probably more easily--find themselves down 10 1/2 games by Friday. That's a huge swing. These are the types of series that can end a season.

Here's why the series is big for the Rangers. More often than not, in a series such as this, because technically it is just another series after all, a team will win two games and the other team will win one. If that happens in this series the Rangers will be up 6 1/2 or 8 1/2 depending on which team wins the two games. The sky is not falling in a 6 1/2 game scenario A and I'd probably just be writing about a third consecutive second place battle four days from now if an 8 1/2 game scenario B plays out. But there are those instances where a team wins all three games in a series. I don't think I need to explain why a Rangers sweep of the A's would be big for the Rangers, but if the A's sweep the Rangers, while not a reason to panic, it will certainly provide a new challenge with a new challenger.

You'll hear tales of 1996 and the 9 game September lead that fell to 1 before the ship was righted. You'll float repressed memories of sweltering summer collapses. You'll read of six or seven game losing streaks to fall out of the race. This series is big for the Rangers simply because while they probably should feel comfortable about their chances of playing in October, they still have to win the baseball games. At the first sign that they might not win them, it's going to get scary.

The simple solution is: Play them all like they're big. I expect the Rangers to do well in this series because they have favorable match-ups, but if they lose this series, I won't be surprised. I also won't be too worried about it, either. For once in my 28 year Rangers fandom life, in any season that didn't end already by May, and while the team should play them all like they're big, the Rangers are in a position where we don't necessarily have to sweat every loss. They will all be frustrating and horrible, mind you. That's the kinds of fans that we are. But for once, each loss isn't going to be a little individual end of the world.

News on the Sale (Clustershag) of the Rangers
Mark Cuban is expected to make clear Tuesday whether he will continue to pursue his acquisition of the Texas Rangers. Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and whom Major League Baseball has cleared as a bidder, was to have made up his mind by Monday night if he will stay in the picture, his attorney, Clifton Jessup, told the team's court-appointed chief restructuring officer within earshot of reporters at the federal courthouse. Cuban may not make it to a scheduled meeting today of potential bidders in Dallas, Jessup told Snyder, who was appointed by federal Judge D. Michael Lynn. Others likely joining the gathering are Houston investor Jim Crane, Dallas businessman Jeff Beck and representatives of Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg's group. Another potential bidder will not be in attendance because he has not been cleared by Major League Baseball, a source said.
Last week, Kevin M. Cofsky of Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York firm originally hired by Rangers owner Tom Hicks to find a buyer, testified that an interested party had met with the firm.

During a status hearing Monday on the ballclub's bankruptcy, Lynn said that Snyder had asked that the auction be postponed to Aug. 9. But the judge said he was sticking with the Aug. 4 date, with bids due the night before, and that the team could emerge from bankruptcy under a new owner at noon on Aug. 5. MLB attorney Stephen Shimshak argued against postponing the Aug. 4 auction, saying that the team owners were scheduled to vote to accept the auction's winner on Aug. 12, the day that the Greenberg-Ryan group says its funding commitments expire. A 75 percent favorable vote is required to approve a new owner.

The team's big lenders are waiting to see if Greenberg will refashion his offer now that the judge pointedly said that last-minute transfers of liabilities to the team and a side parking lot deal -- all seen as benefiting Hicks -- could be stripped from his offer. Greenberg may have to alter his offer to stay competitive, should others bid. The judge has openly criticized Perella Weinberg and the team's bankruptcy attorneys, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, for starting late off the block in trying to sell the team, and for apparently not trying as hard as they might. The firm, whose ouster had been demanded by the case's U.S. Trustee for possible conflicts of interest, must work to get the highest and best offer for the benefit of the ballclub, and hence its creditors, not its long-time client, the judge said.

The new life project of marriage

I attended the wedding of my cousin this weekend and was confronted with a question I’m sure many people have, yet few people voice…what is marriage? It may seem that a bachelor is not the one to answer that question. I am not married nor have I ever been married - which doesn't exactly qualify me to talk about marriage. Yet marriage is certainly a worthy topic for discussion. It is something that needs to be more clearly understood and more deeply appreciated. But as Catholics, it is not about marriage, it is about the Sacrament of Marriage.

Although I am not married myself, I have experienced the Sacrament of Marriage. I have witnessed the marriages of friends and family. I have participated in the wedding ceremony many times. Even before my infant Baptism I was born into a Christian marriage. What I am going to say about the sacrament is drawn from my experience of my parents and the many married couples with whom I have discussed the meaning of the sacrament. These couples have often told me of the meaning which they find in this sacrament. Marriage involves embarking on a new life project.

A new life project
We each have something that we want to do with our lives: something we want to become. It may take us a while to find out what that "something" is, but eventually a life project forms, either consciously or unconsciously. And it seems to me that as people pursue this goal, whatever it may be - to be a skilled surgeon, to be the best kindergarten teacher that ever lived, to own a farm or whatever else they may see their life to be about - they sometimes encounter another human being to whom they are so attracted that the love of this other person supersedes all other life goals and ambitions. They undertake a new life project.

Little by little they decide that first on their agenda is now going to be the life, the happiness, the holiness of this other person. The good of this other takes precedence even over the desires and dreams they have for themselves. And when that other makes the same decision, together the two embark on a whole new adventure. It seems to me that this is the basic meaning of the

Sacrament of Marriage.
The sacrament reveals the religious dimension of marriage. Besides the human, social and legal dimensions of marriage - the public sign that one gives oneself totally to this other person - sacramental marriage is also a public statement about God. The celebration of each of the sacraments reveals something of this ultimate reality: who God is and who God is for us.
In the Scriptures the relationship between God and God's people is often described in terms of a marriage. The early Christians, reflecting on Christ's love for us, also used this image. Christ and the Church embrace in mutual love and self-giving, even as do husband and wife (see, for example, Ephesians 5:21-33). "'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31-32).

What makes a marriage
Sometimes you can learn a lot about something by looking at its opposite. We can learn about the marriage sacrament by considering what leads the Church, in the case of annulments, to see that two people never were truly married.

"An annulment is just a Catholic way of getting a divorce." I have heard this said by many people in many different circumstances (and there are times when I feel that there is an element of truth in this statement). Yet I remain convinced that an annulment is a very different thing from a divorce. Divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage. An annulment is the legal declaration that a valid sacramental marriage never existed.

In order for a Christian marriage to take place the man and woman must be capable of entering into such a sacrament. The individuals must have the capacity to give such a gift. This capacity develops gradually. When we were children our parents taught us little by little to be generous - first with things, then with ourselves. We were taught to share toys, playthings, bicycles and birthday cake. Little by little, we learned to share our time and ourselves.

This gradual learning to give of ourselves is the necessary preparation for marriage. A person who has not journeyed sufficiently on the road to maturity and generosity is not capable of a true marriage, even though he or she may be quite capable of sharing an apartment or conceiving a child.

There are many reasons why two particular people cannot join their lives in the marriage project. It is not always a culpable lack of generosity. Sometimes it becomes apparent only years after the wedding ceremony that there was no marriage there in the first place. To declare publicly that the marriage never existed is what Catholics call an "annulment."

Our marriage covenant with God
In each of the sacraments a window opens and we can glimpse the mystery of God and God's plan for the salvation of the world. In Christian marriage we see that God was not content to be alone, but embarked on a whole new life project. Out of love God created us and all that is. God is faithful no matter what. Whether we are faithful or faithless, God is faithful; whether we wander away in sin or remain in the embrace of love, God is always there and is ever ready to embrace us.

This sacramental sign, which the husband and wife give to each other, they also give to the entire community of witnesses. I too have made commitments to God and God has made commitments to me. There are times when I wonder if God will be faithful. I have never seen God, but I can see the fidelity of Christian husbands and wives. Their love for each other is a sacramental sign and witness of God's love for me. I believe that our human lives are interconnected, like a fabric, woven together by many commitments. The fidelity of their commitment strengthens my own commitments.