Doggy-Dog World

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I'm sort of an obsessive reader, always have been. Once I get my teeth into the hide of a writer I like, I devour the entire canon of his/her works, sometimes more than once. For example, right now I'm rereading all of the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford, the Prey series that nearly everyone in the world reads. I'm now in the middle of the ninth, and while I thought I'd read them all before, I've discovered that I hadn't read four of the first nine. Either that or I'm slipping rapidly into dementia. He reads very fast, but oh my, the violence. If there really were a Lucas Davenport in the real world, he'd be dead about a hundred times over. All in all, I've read the Matt Scudder series by Lawrence Block twice. Just love Matt Scudder. I've read the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald four times. Just love Travis McGee. I've read the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker twice and might do it again. Love Spenser (who never seems to age). I've read the entire (and it's a bunch) 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain and will do it again. Love all those guys. All the James Lee Burke series with Dave Robicheaux (a little hard to love but a great character). All the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman (great character who also never seems to age). All the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly (Harry is a literary twin of Matt Scudder, both characters dark as night). All the Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais (Elvis is a literary twin of Spenser, both characters sort of kookie). All of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child (Jack is a literary twin of Travis McGee . . . sort of). There are more than I've listed here, but you get the picture. I'm obsessive. My first obsession was with the Oz series by L. Frank Baum. Owned 'em all, read and reread 'em. That was followed by all the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Now you have it, now you know part of me.

     I watch a lot of baseball, nearly every game the Diamondbacks play, and I have to comment on all the spitting, expectorating, if you want the fancy word. I realize it goes back to the old days when virtually every player spent the whole game with a jawful of "chaw." Lots of cancer-of-the-jaw-and-tongue later, most modern players are no longer chewing tobacco, but they continue the tradition of spitting . . . every five seconds. None of it’s mucousy stuff, just a normal (normal?) stream of saliva, most spat with the lips, some through the teeth. But they all do it. And now, with our use of tv cameras that can get such closeup shots, the viewer sees it over and over, in living color, up close and personal. It’s a habit that should be abandoned. I can’t think of any other sport in which the contestants spit. Not in football, basketball, tennis, soccer, bowling, beach volleyball, golf. Woops! Can’t really say that about golf since the entire world has occasionally seen Tiger let go with a long stream, usually after having hit a shot not to his liking, even though most of the other golfers would give their favorite putter to hit the same shot. I wish he wouldn't do it. I wish Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig would start policing the players, maybe fining them a thousand per spit. That would be about $200,000 a game for most of them. They’re all making a bunch of money, but at that rate they’d all be in the hole by the end of the season. You'd think they'd all be dehydrated by the end of each game.