Michael Hopcroft

"Mutiny. I thought that was a word for the Navy." "Meade will come in slowly, cautiously, new to command. They'll be on his back from Washington. Wires hot with messages. Attack! Attack! So he will set up a ring around these hills. And when Lee's army is nicely entrenched behind fat rocks on the high ground... Meade will finally attack, if he can coordinate the army. Straight up the hillside, out in the open... in that gorgeous field of fire. We will charge valiantly and be butchered valiantly. And afterward, men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chest and say what a brave charge it wa!"

It is refreshing to see that, with all the turmoil in baseball over uniforms and velocities and pitch clocks, that Bob Uecker is still -- Bob Uecker. "Mr. Baseball" is a true American original -- a mediocre ballplayer whose self-deprecating humor and love/knowledge of baseball enabled him to become of the best broadcasters in the game and a cultural icon (he had a great peripheral role in Major League and was one of the featured players in the sitcom Mr. Belvedere, and has done legendary ads for beer). With the New York Yankees' long-time play-by-play voice John Stirling retiring and Vin Scully's retirement a few years ago, an era of history is passing. Uecker is in his early nineties. He won' be in the booth much longer. So I am going to catch some Brewers home games on satellite radio (he doesn't travel with the Brewers anymore) and take in what I can of a sports era I nearly missed altogether.

I got a chance to see the first bit of a little-known animated series called Phantom 2040. The Phantom is a superhero from the jungles of -- somewhere -- called "The Ghost Who Walks" because he seems to exist everywhere in history. The reality is that the mantle of the phantom has been passed along the generations for centuries. And in this series, set in the then-distant future of 2040, the new Phantom emerges in a near-dystopian cyberpunk-style world. The newest son is a grad-school ecologist trying to save a global ecosystem that is rapidly disintegrating, which unknowingly pits him against a ruthless mega-billionairess and her psychotic son (who usually speaks as though he is conveying the wishes of his ever-present cat, especially when he is being excessively cruel -- in hi8s very first scene he murders his robot butler for no reason whatsoever). In this episode, I found the style of the animation quite interesting and so different from the superhero-cartoon aesthetic of its times that I had to wonder where I had seen it before -- until I put my finger on the source. Which was the legendary MTV adult cartoon Aeon Flux. Those of us who were old enough to watch it will probably never forget the angular, languid look of the series. And while Phantom 2040 was aimed at a younger audience, it shares many themes in common with its predecessor. But while Aeon embraced and even relished the decay in her world (and her eternal rivalry with the powerful Trevor Goodchild), the Phantom is trying to reverse the decay and restore hope to a planet that has precious little of it left.

Q" "Oooh, Archie! Show me that piston of yours and --- WOW, that's a huge drive shaft!" A: "Noweher wasn't always nowhere? I wonder what happened here. These structures have a story to tell."

"I always wanted a tail."

Q: How does Donatello find time to "do machines"? A: If you like it, then you should have put a ring on it.

Q: What does Q think he SHOULD have said after the Farpoint fiasco? A: Chaos. Death. And lots of spiky bits. Just the thing for the kindergarten project!

On one hand, I don't think Othtani would risk throwing away three-quarters of a billion dollars. On the other, he is going to have to bear the taint of these allegations the rest of his career, and we have seen ballplayers with gambling addictions who do really stupid things.

Given what we have learned about cancers over the last four decades, that isn't as tinfoil hat as you think. That said, I think the timing is an awkward and tragic coincidence.

"Who would ever want to be King?" -- Coldplay

Q: What was it like to be Freddie Mercury? A: I will follow your orders, but you have to earn the crew's respect and loyalty.

""O Lord, hear my plea. Destroy him. He maketh a blight upon the Land!" "Don't listen to him. He's Crazy" "Under the right circumstances, a producer could make more money with a flop than he could with a hit."

"Never gamble with a Sicilian when death is on the line!" "Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't believe they exist." "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Q: Why did you decide it was a good idea to stomp on this guy's feet again and again? A: I've an irritating chuckle, I've a celebrated sneer, I've an entertaining snigger, I've a fascinating leer!

"I've found the perfect new home! Wonderful climate, friendly inhabitants, truly advanced science and progress..." "Great! What's this planet called?" "Krypton!" "You realize that we are seeing it the way it was 3,000 years ago." "Maybe, but can it really change that much since then?"

What to make of the controversy in the Red Bull paddock for their Formula One #1 team? There are reports of a massive power struggle going on within the team, provoked by an investigation of a senior manager that was apparently either botched or suppressed of both. What is at stake is the future of the most dominant team in F1 history -- a team so dominant that other teams can barely sniff the podium, much less the race winner spot. There are rumors that their ace Max Verstappen might even walk away from the team and join another if the management struggle doesn't come out as he wants. This would be a seismic shift in the sport of Formula 1. While Lewis Hamilton signing as a free agent with Ferrari for '25 made a lot of headlines, Hamilton is a "Lion in Winter" who has not quite regained his former edge, to the point that he is the #2 at Mercedes. Also, there have already been complaints about the 24-race schedule for this season. Drivers and crews are afraid of the toll it will exact, especially since many of the more difficult tracks are late in the season, when most of what drivers and teams fight for has already been decided. Qatar in particular is cited as a race where it was fortunate no drivers were killed in a race that would have little impact on the outcome of the season.

Q; Why does everyone in the Shinjuku market have that strong, healthy glow? A: She puts the "Fun" into "Fundamentalism"!

"Ah. Yes, my darling, I was just about to call you. I'm on my way. I've got the cheese and the Beaujolais. What? My love. Kiss the children for me. Huh? Hold on." (sets the phone down) "Yes?" "Your wife is on the other line." "Tell her I'm out of town."

I saw Raffles tonight with my mother (on Prime), from 1939. David Niven plays A.J. Raffles, a renowned society gent and famous cricketer who leads a second life as "The Amateur Cracksman", a jewel and art thief. He's fallen back in love with a girl from school days (a stunningly beautiful Olivia De Havilland), and is determined to give up crime -- until her brother confides that he needs to come up with a thousand pounds or go to prison. So Raffles reluctantly takes on one last robbery at a noble estate -- but the Scotland Yard inspector he's been taunting for years shows up just as he is about to perform the job, as has a not-so-gentlemanly thief looking for the same prize. Niven would go on to play a very similar role in Blake Edwards' comedic caper masterpiece The Pink Panther. He was shocked when the sequels featured Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau and not his Phantom as he thought it would be. It didn't help that Sellers was the same screwed-up ass he always was, not getting along with anybody and antagonizing everyone involved.

A 18-year-old English driver named Ollie Bearman has been called up out of motor racing's equivalent of the "minors" do drive Ferrari's second car in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, He had a decent qualifying run yesterday, ending up in the eleventh spot on the grid (naturally, Max Verstappen is on pole and is a near-prohibitive favorite to win the race). Bearman will be the only rookie in the field. Nobody is signed this y4ear to drive in Formula 1 who was not there in 2023. It's still questionable if there are some drivers in f1 who shouldn't be there at the point, but nobody gave a rookie a shot. I appreciate Ferrari taking the low-risk gamble (he's filling for the #1 driver on the team, Carlos Sainz), and then it will be back to Ferrari's F2 team for Bearman. I will be watching the race with interest and keeping an eye on how Bearman does. There was another substitute driver in 2023who I was hoping would get an F1 ride, but didn't. I'm just hoping (if the world lasts that long) there will be a rookie driver or two in 2025.

I thought this would be an Internet hoax, but evidently it isn't: the creator of the immensely popular Dragonball series of manga and anime, Akira Toriyama, has passed away at the age of 68. Even if the name is not familiar, gamers would have to have been living under very large rocks to be completely ignorant of Dragonball. Starting as a comical riff on the classic novel Journey to the West, it featured a strong but naive boy named Son Goku who is enlisted by a girl scientist to track down seven magical orbs which, when brought together, would summon the godlike dragon Shenron to grant the user one unconditional wish. Along the way, they encounter a string of eccentric characters and powerful adversaries like the totalitarian Red Ribbon Army, as well as a lecherous martial arts instructor who teaches Goku devastating techniques, which had him growing unimaginably powerful. Fats forward thirty years. Goku has grown up, married, and sired a son, all the while remaining a big, lovable oaf. But then he learns the secret of his own past -- not only is he not really human, but he was actually sent to Earth as an infant to destroy the planet on behalf of the might Saiyan Empire. This is something Goku unconditionally rejects, choosing to protect instead of destroy and love instead of hate. This puts him in conflict with many ever-more-powerful adversaries, including the Saiyan general Vegeta who would become his great rival. A riff on a novel about the rise of Buddhism in Eastern Asia switched into a riff on the Superman mythos, spawning some of the most spectacular super-brawls ever drawn and animated. Ironically, Toriyama was asked to write Dragonball because his previous series, the wacky comedy Dr. Slump, had gotten too weird in the eyes of his publisher. But his influence did not stop with manga and anime. He also had a role in the creation of such significant video games as the Dragon Quest franchise, Blue Dragon, and more. But it is Dragonball, and its enormous impact on global popular culture, that was his crowning achievement.

If I may interject, I have a lot of experiences with false positives when I but something from a small publisher. For example, pretty much every sports simulation game I buy I need to give special permission to bypass the obvious false positive and save the files (simply because Microsoft thinks too few people have downloaded the file). I'm not surprised this is happening with TTRPG purchases as well.

"I always wanted a tail...."

"Now that's a katana!" "Ruby is that my book..." "This is filth! FILTH!" (whacks friend in the head with the "borrowed book") "Can I have my book back?" "LATER!"