the institute of useless activity

The new official name for my study.  How do I get a proper plaque made?  

stolen

photo | roy salmond | water beads on a patio tarp

 

no filter / no black & white

rube waddell

This is Rube Waddell, an American baseball player from the early 1900s.

In the middle of a game, Waddell would disappear to chase fire trucks. He was easily distracted, so opposing fans would bring puppies to the game which would have Waddell running over to play with them.

American sportswriter and baseball historian Lee Allen wrote that in 1903, Waddell was "sleeping in a firehouse at Camden, New Jersey, and ended it tending bar in a saloon in Wheeling, West Virginia. In between those events, he won 22 games for the Philadelphia Athletics, toured the nation in a melodrama called The Stain of Guilt, courted, married, and became separated from May Wynne Skinner of Lynn, Massachusetts, saved a woman from drowning, accidentally shot a friend through the hand, and was bitten by a lion."

It should be noted that Waddell was incapable of memorizing his lines for his part in The Stain of Guilt, so he was allowed to improvise his lines in every show. The play went on to critical acclaim.

In 1905, Waddell shared a room with baseball catcher Ossee Schreckengost who refused to continue sharing the room unless there was a clause in Waddell’s contract that forbade him from eating crackers in bed. It should be noted that it was common for players to share the same bed in hotel rooms while on the road. That same year, he missed the World Series after injuring his shoulder while trying to destroy a straw hat.

He did however, went on to win a Triple Crown in pitching. If the Cy Young award had existed during this time, Waddell would have won it over Cy Young himself.

Waddell never used the locker rooms and would come to the stadium in street clothes and strip down naked and change into his uniform for everyone to see. He then would proceed to grab drinks and hot dogs from spectators and down them before getting to the pitcher’s mound. He was so confident that he would occasionally tell his outfielders to vacate their positions and then proceed to strike out his opponents one by one. He would then cartwheel or somersault back to the dugout.

He died of tuberculosis at the age of 37 on April Fool’s Day, 1914.

History Cool Kids

cormac mccarthy | i live in a windmill

 

What about you?

I live in a windmill. I light candles for the dead and I'm trying to learn how to pray.

What do you pray for?

I don't pray for anything, I just pray.

I thought you were an atheist.

No. I don't have any religion.

And you live in a windmill.

Yes.

from The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

daniel woodrell | the ways of life

"The ways of life are glum and grim and nasty and I guess you want to turn crybaby about that, but what's on my mind is, Whoever misled you things were otherwise, hon? What sugar factory spun you out with such candy-assed notions? For cryin' out loud, there's other staples I'll break to you right now, too: the sun gives life but you'd be an ash flake if you got close to it, you got to swallow water to live but sometimes it kills you, Uncle Sam don't truly count you as no relation, and God has gone blank on your name and face."

from Tomato Red

by Daniel Woodrell 

author of Winter's Bone

jan 5 | toni the carpenter

Just before Christmas, Tofino's beloved Shelter restaurant was destroyed by fire. Located just down the block from where my daughter's family lives, it has really shaken the two little girls to see a familiar landmark gone. They were at a Christmas party there only a few days before the fire; the owners of the restaurant are well known to everyone in the town. Thea's husband, Lalo, is a builder, so six-year-old Rosa thinks their family should build them a new restaurant, and if they hurry they can get it done before leaving for Disneyland at spring break. Toni is practising her carpentry skills.