In Memory of Gary Carter

Before I ever realized the joy of geekdom, I was, believe it or not, a baseball fan. Well, I guess I can't say "fan", but I watched much more of it than I do now. Granted, my enjoyment of baseball probably stemmed from my father's love of the game. As often as he could he would pack up the family and we would head out to the stadium to watch a game. His favorite team? The New York Mets and, as an extension, they quickly became my favorite team. The era? 1986.

I saw a few games during the '86 Mets' season so I'm quite familiar with the winning team. Consisting of Keith Hernandez, Mookie Wilson, HoJo, and pre-coke Darryl Strawberry and Dwight "Doc" Gooden, the '86 Mets were a joy to watch. I didn't quite grasp all of the rules of the game, but I loved being at the field, under the sun, watching the games with my family. My favorite part of the entire experience was the giant Apple that would spring out of the top hat at the back of the field whenever a home run was hit.

My favorite player on the team was Gary Carter. When I heard of his passing last week, I was devastated. Though I haven't been a fan of baseball in years, or even thought of the man until he hit the news with word of his recent brain cancer, I was still affected emotionally by his passing. I remember the way he played with intensity, dropping to his knees to catch an errant pop-fly. He brought an excitement to the game that audiences don't see nowadays. He played for the love of the game. Sure, he probably made a good living out of it too, but he was still getting paid to do what he loved. His attitude toward the game is what earned him the nickname "The Kid".

As an 11-time All-Star, his contributions to the game of baseball are evident, as are his contributions to the New York Mets' franchise. His RBI in Game 5 of the '86 World Series brought the Mets to a win over the Houston Astors and set the stage to win the series in Game 6. Carter was often accused of being self-absorbed during his tenure with the Montreal Expos, but he didn't come off like that in the eyes of a 6-year old. All I saw was a grown man who was as excited about baseball as I was.

Gary Carter passed away on February 16, 2012 at the age of 57. His passing doesn't change my opinion of the current state of baseball, or even bring me back into the fold of being a baseball fan. I will always remember the man as a childhood idol, someone who brought me hours of entertainment and enjoyment. Though sad, death is truly a part of life, and something that everyone must deal with at some point. When the world lost Gary Carter, a part of the 6-year-old in me died as well.

R.I.P. Gary Carter, April 8, 1954 - February 16, 2012

Review: Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris is famous for her Sookie Stackhouse series of books that has become so popular, it has taken over HBO with its hit show True Blood. As much as I admire her work and the characters she's created, it pains me to say that the latest book, Dead Reckoning, was a huge disappointment. With no plots or reason to write the book, I felt that she was more pressed to get a book out as fast as she could to appease her eagerly awaiting fans then with trying to create a story worth reading. I have read many fan reviews, both positive and negative, and seen numerous four-star ratings, but I feel that people are just giving these ratings because it’s Charlaine Harris. I wonder if they read the same book I did?

I didn’t feel the hype or excitement I usually get with Charlaine's books, or that feeling of wanting to know more about how things are going to turn out.

Cue Spoilers Here.



All we got from the book is to be Eric married to the Queen of Oklahoma and that the marriage between Eric and Sookie will no longer be valid. Eric kills Victor. Pam falls in love with a woman who dies from leukemia. Sandra Pelt finally gets killed in an anti-climactic way, her dead body thrown into a fairy portal. And Sookie breaks the blood bond with Eric. All of this sounds exciting, right?

It wasn’t. It left me feeling empty with no care for the will happen in the next book or imagination as to how she is going to write. The only time I felt any sort of excitement was at the end of chapter twelve, and that excitement was gone almost as quickly as it arrived! It seems as if Charlaine wants you to not anticipate the next installment to this fascinating series and, as a fan since the beginning, this just makes me sad.

Does this mean that I will not read her next book or watch the show anymore? Of course not. The story of Eric and Bill will keep me on my tippy toes, but at what point do you just stop and look at where the story is going? Are fans to blame for being so impatient with wanting to know what happens next or who Sookie will end up with? I’m not exactly sure but I felt Dead Reckoning was just written fast to get a book on the shelves. I hope the next one makes up for it, spending better time on the characters and their relationships, or I may no longer be reading this series.

Advice For The Duggars

Sweet Christ, what are they thinking?

So, the other evening I was watching that 19 Kids And Counting show (no, not by choice). While I certainly feel that the Duggar parents suffer from some sort of severe mental disability, I'd like to offer them some help. Well, not them but their oldest son and his wife.

Josh and Anna have just begun their own family and now have two children of their own, Mackynzie and Michael. Given those two names, I assumed they are working on the same naming platform as the Duggars, choosing the letter M as their OCD focal point. After a while, it will become difficult to come up with names starting with M, so I've decided to compile a list.


1) Matthew
2) Maxwell

Number 15 seems to
work for him.

3) McKenna
4) Madelyn
5) Marc
6) Magnolia
7) Mumford
8) Moesha
9) Macadamia
10) Methuselah
11) Mozzarella
12) & 13) Menarch & Maxipad (for twin girls)
14) Merkin
15) Mitchell Musso
16) Maynard
17) Muggle
18) McGuffin
19) Mumm-Ra
20) MILF


I'm aware that having so many children is an undertaking, and it's my hope that with this list, the task of name the children can at least be easier. To Josh and Anna perusing the above baby names, there's no need to thank me. Just knowing that I'm able to make your difficult parenthood even slightly less stressful is thanks enough for me.

Word Up, Daniel Craig

I really love it when celebrities talk truthfully about other celebrities. Most of the time, a star will gush over someone else, stating “Oh, I love them, they’re so lovely” and we rarely hear anything negative about anyone in Hollywood. How can an entire industry be filled with fantastic people?

But not so with Daniel Craig, who spoke plainly about the Kardashians in a recent interview. And rightly so. As the topic of privacy came up, an ideal that Craig holds dearly, Daniel Craig described the Kardashians as “fucking idiots”.

"Look at the Kardashians, they're worth millions," he continued. "I don't think they were that badly off to begin with but now look at them. You see that and you think 'what, you mean all I have to do is behave like a fucking idiot on television and then you'll pay me millions?'“

Daniel Craig couldn’t be speaking more truthfully. The Kardashians have become famous for…what exactly? Being related to Robert Kardashian, who represented OJ Simpson in his murder case and was able to get the football star acquitted? No. No one paid any attention to the man during that time, up until his death in 2003. Meanwhile, his ex-wife and kids have a reality television show on E!, and selling wedding photos to the tabloids for millions of dollars.

Honestly, good for them. They’re able to make money by just living their lives. However, they need to realize that there’s no going back from that. Everyone has already seen you at home, in your living room, in your bedroom. We’ve witnessed you getting arrested for a DUI on your way home from the club. We’ve seen you sex tape. Kourtney Kardashian is even going so far as to start a ‘Mommy Blog’ (because I'd take child-rearing tips from a Kardashian since they did such a bang-up job). And the longer you go on with this desire to be in the public eye, the harder it will be for you to withdraw.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending the Kardashians. I want them to go away. I even signed the petition to get E! to cancel Keeping Up With the Kardashians and the legions of other shows it’s spawned. While I’m completely aware that it would be completely useless and they will remain on the air for as long as those shows make money, but it still felt good to do it.

While Daniel Craig did point out the Kardashians in his interview, it’s clear that these aren’t the only people he’s annoyed with. Craig knows that his comments won’t be well accepted, and makes a clear reference to the Jersey Shore and Real Housewives of New Jersey when he says “I'm probably going to get visited by people from New Jersey”.

Don’t worry, Dan. Not everyone from New Jersey is an attention whore. We got your back.

SyFy To Make Booster Gold... What Could Go Wrong?

Show your
Booster Gold pride!

Last week, comic book fans were treated to the news that SyFy, the cable channel that used to be SciFi which stood for Science Fiction and made sense at some point, has ordered a pilot for a series based on the DC Comics hero, Booster Gold. I'm mostly torn on this news. While it's a good thing that comic characters are getting more exposure, it's still SyFy.

While SyFy (God, how I hate typing that) do have a real respect for their material, they don't always get things right. They have a few hit shows, like Ghost Hunters, which has rapidly declined in years, Alphas, an otiginal show about super-humans which has just been renewed for a second season, and a remake of the BBC show, Being Human, but most of what they air is trite and nonsensical.

Let's be honest though. SyFy is the channel that tried to ride the wave of popularity of the History Channel show, Ice Road Truckers, by developing a movie called Ice Road Terror. Pair this with Sharktopus, Monster Ark, and Alien Apocalypse (whose only saving grace is Bruce Campbell) and it's clear they have a terrible track record for original programming.

Now I'm willing to concede that their serial programming is far more tolerable than their films. Maybe this has something to do with the costs of producing long-standing shows versus one-off movies. It's easy to drop $200,000 and shit out a 2-hour movie that can make $75,000 on advertising in one showing. But they might be a little more cautious in producing a 13-episode serial drama. Or, at least, I'm hoping they are.
But SyFy's involvement not-with-standing, costumed superhero movies just may not be en vouge. Look at David E. Kelley's Wonder Woman pilot from a few months back. First, you have Kelley, who has a great track recors in television, with The Practice and Ally McBeal. Wonder Woman is a well-known superhero with a built-in fan base, yet NBC passed on the pilot. Why?

Theories maintain Lynda
Carter hexed Palicki before
filming.

Well, all reports said the Wonder Woman pilot was just balls-out terrible. Not having seen it, I can't comment. But with big-name stars like Adrianne Palicki, Elizabeth Hurley and Cary Elwes, I have to point my finger at Kelley's writing. Most often, writers feel that they "get" the character, take control, and place them into scenes or situations that they feel relate best to superheroes. They lose sight that these superheroes work best when they're not super at all, but when they're most vulnerable.

Which brings me to my main point. If the writers SyFy hires for Booster Gold are any good, then the show could be real fun. Booster Gold is an arrogant dick, but he's got a good heart. A character like that can make a real fun show, provided he's placed in the right situations. If all we get is a superhero show just for the sake of cashing in on superheroes, then it will surely tank at the outset.

Not only would the writers have to understand the character but the actor as well. Like I said, Booster is extremely arrogant, so the smugness would be the key. I'd hate to say it, but someone like Charlie Sheen would be perfect. It's just a shame Sheen is too old and crack-emaciated to fit the look.


In the right hands, Booster Gold could be a good show. While I don't think the fanbase is there right off, a well written, well produced, well acted serial dramedy could grow it's own fanbase, and hopefully its audience would eventually seek out the source material, which would be a major boon to the comics industry. My biggest fear, though, and what is most likely to happen, is SyFy will hire a few amateur writers who'll read a couple issues of 52 and think they have what it takes to write the ultimate Booster Gold pilot. Something in me believes that Booster Gold will make Wonder Woman look like Citizen Kane in comparison.

Stop Black Friday?

Madness. (Image courtesy SheFinds.com)

So my old boss, who ironically is a manager in a retail store, sent me the link to Stop Black Friday. While I haven't spent too much time on the site, I took a quick look at it and I'm just flabbergasted at people's ignorance of the way big businesses operate.

Exactly like my feelings about the Occupy Wall Street Movement, I completely understand people's desire to boycott the big box stores. And for the most part, their logic behind the movement is sound. However, they are waging war without understanding the enemy well enough.

Yes, boycotting a store during the time they will make the most sales and pull in the most money will affect their bottom line. If the public can prevent a company from coming out of the red, that company will stand up and take notice. However, they will also fight back. See, what most people don't realize is that these corporations run by the 1% do not run businesses the way the government runs the public sector. The private sector will not maintain a losing status quo.

Scratch that. The private sector will not maintain a status quo that's even perceived as possibly losing. If there is even a hint that a business model will lose money, then the corporation will react. So if the public decides to boycott Walmart or Target or any of the others, who do you think will really suffer?

Their employees.

If Black Friday does not prove to be profitable, the lay-offs begin. People will start losing their jobs. And if that doesn't help to recoup the lost revenue from a shitty holiday season, then the corporation will look for other ways to cut costs. Like freeze cost-of-living wage increases, so employees won't even be getting their meager 15¢ per hour raise. Then they will pull whatever other benefits the employees get, like a retirement fund or a 401K match. Yes, some retail establishments do offer these perks. Or at least they did up until the economic downturn of a few years ago. And those that still do will stop.

I've been through all of this. I've worked for a company that took away raises and benefits. I went through it all, even getting laid off. What's more, a year after I lost my job, the company closed down the location I worked in, putting everyone in the store out of work.

You want to organize your boycotts of big business, go ahead. I won't stop you; I'm not even mad at you. However, when your plans don't go the way you want, and people you know begin losing their jobs, then you really can't blame the big businesses. They're only doing what you are doing; trying to survive.

Is it right? Not at all. Do I have any better ideas? No. But I do know that attacking the people that control so many jobs is not the best way to go. My recommendation would be to reduce the number of taxes these corporate and industrial entities pay, and to provide incentives to bring jobs back to America. I know that I'll be flamed for the idea that these businesses should pay less taxes, but I realize that one of the few ways to turn around our economic instability is to inflate the job market. We won't get that if we chase these companies away.

Face it. The Waltons can close down every single Walmart store worldwide, cease production of all goods and services, and still live like kings off of what they've already made. But where does that leave the millions of people they employ? In the lurch, fighting for the minute number of jobs that are available.

Should we still Stop Black Friday?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Image of deliciousness courtesy
WhatsCookingAmerica.net

Here at Caution: Idiot At Play, we love our holidays. It's a chance to take a break from our busy lives and spend some time with our families. Plus, we get to celebrate with a day away from our soul-sucking day-jobs. My plan today was to put together a Thanksgiving-themed post, but after wracking my brain, I couldn't come up with the right topic.

If you are a frequent visitor, you'll know about our Halloween posts, showcasing some amazing Jack-O-Lantern art. That's a pretty easy idea right there. But what can I do about Thanksgiving?


I could rehash the history of Thanksgiving, about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans and the way they put their differences aside and came together in harmony for a huge feast. But since the next day, the Pilgrims spread their smallpox to the Natives and stole their land once they were nearly decimated, I decided to pass on that idea.

Then I figured I could do something concerning the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, showing off the balloons that have taken part throughout the years. In all honesty, though I didn't have the time to research that, so maybe I'll put that in my back pocket for the future.

I had the idea to compile some delicious recipes, maybe even show a few videos of the Food Network chefs making delicious Thanksgiving dishes. But that just seemed kind of trite.

Since I just couldn't seem to narrow down what I want to do in this post, I figure I'll just do all three.

So, here's the History of Thanksgiving, courtesy of the History Channel...

...the Spider-Man balloon, floating through Manhattan...

...and Alton Brown fries a turkey, in three parts.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!