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BE THANKFUL OF YOUR LIFE

I thought Donald Trump and Elon Musk made nice-nice after their brouhaha.  Apparently not, for when Trump's 940-page Big Beautiful Bill survived a Senate procedural vote yesterday to be considered by the floor, Musk used terms like, the latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in American and cause harm to our country....utterly insane and destructive....political suicide for the Republican party....will raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, the biggest increase in history, putting America in the fast lane to debt slavery.

I watched two films last night, one on Netflix and another on Amazon Prime, that grabbed my attention regarding my life, but in totally different ways.  One was loved by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers, gaining a 94 rating, with audiences giving only 79.  The other was the opposite, with RT reviewers at 82 and audiences 95.  For me, both were excellent films.  So what I will do on Sundays devoted to spiritualism and my personal life, is to have a two-part series, featuring this contradistinction.

Next week will be bit edgy, but today I start with my wonderful life.  Secure, comfortable and happy.  Certainly, compared to the lead in the 2022 Emily the Criminal.  This is the one that earned a Rotten Tomatoes reviewers score of 94.  

I've been lucky my whole life.  This film got me thinking, where would I be had serendipity not prevailed?  The Emily in this production unfortunately suffered all the bad breaks.  First, student debt, then a couple of not so serious incidents that nevertheless tainted her record.  When she tried to enter the job market, she was locked out because of these "criminal" issues.

Emily has a tough life, with no close family alliances.  Every day is a struggle.  Very stressful.  One of those lives where you wonder if it is worth even living.  Of course it can be a lot worse if you were desperate in Nigeria or Ukraine or dozens of other places around the world.

For one, she can't keep up with her bills.  Fate draws her into participating in a "dummy shopper" service that promises to make her $200 in one hour.  A credit card fraud ring.  Bad things happen, so she tries to recoup some funds through forceful means, and barely escapes with a garbage bag of money.  No sense continuing to live in Los Angeles, so she escapes to her dream world in a South American city.  She does speak Latin American.   Can now enjoy swimming off a beach, or just sit and contemplate.  Luxuriates, compared to her previous drag.  Sort of like me.  Secure and happy.  No indication of how much money was in that bag, but, apparently not a whole lot, for the final scene has her re-starting the scam life from which she fled.  Kind of gut-wrenching, for her future can only be bad.

Many of you reading this posting exist on a scale between Emily and me, although some no doubt have it better.  Not rich, by any means, but secure and happy.  I could live like I do today for the rest of my life and be perfectly satisfied.

To close, have you been keeping up with Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani?  Some claim him as the best baseball player ever.  Maybe not yet, but shows promise.  Got two anecdotes.  

First, his fame, at least in Japan and Hawaii, has influenced a brand new type of TV fan.  Older oriental women who normally wouldn't watch Major League Baseball.  Something about his success, looks and character attracts them.  Do I have any polls to back me up?  No.  Just talking to friends and they bringing this subject up.

Second, his relationship with Vinnie Pasquantino of the Kansas City Royals.
  • Shohei Ohtani threw the fastest pitch of his MLB career on Saturday to Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. The Los Angeles Dodgers star, who just returned to pitching this month after a near two-year break, unleashed a 101.7-mph four-seam fastball to Pasquantino in the first inning.
  • The funny thing is, though, that     Ohtani's fastest pitch thrown in his entire baseball career was a 102-mph in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. And who did he throw that pitch to? None other than Pasquantino.

  • Reporters asked Pasquantino after the game about the bizarre fortune of seeing Ohtani's two fastest pitches of his career, and he gave a funny response.  "He keeps doing that to me," Pasquantino said, via MLB's Anne Rogers. "I need to talk to him."   

Here are some other facts about Shohei.
  • He threw a 99.4 MPH pitch while still in high school.
  • Was an outstanding swimmer, who his coach said would have made the Olympics.
  • His father was a semi-professional baseball player and mother an accomplished badminton star.
Comparison with Babe Ruth.
  • Ruth
    • played 20 seasons, pitched 10 years
    • 714 home runs, 123 stolen bases, won 94 games
  • Ohtani
    • 7.5 seasons, pitched 5 years
    • 254 home runs, 156 stolen bases, won 38 games
    • He and Babe Ruth are the only two players in the history of the Majors to hit at least 10 or more home runs and win 10 or more games in the same season.  
      • Ohtani in 2022 won 15 games and hit 34 home runs and in 2023 won 10 games and hit 26 home runs
      • Ruth in 1919 won 13 games and hit 29 home runs.  
      • Ohtani also did this in 2014 and 2016 for the Nippon Ham Fighters
  • In 2024, Ohtani hit 54 home runs and stole 59 bases.
  • In 1921, Ruth hit 59 homers and stole 17 bases.
  • In 1927, Ruth hit 60 homers and stole 7 bases
  • Ruth hit 25 or more homers 16 times and won 10 or more games 4 times.
  • Ohtani is the only player to play in the All-Star game as hitter and pitcher.  That was in 2021.
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