This may not be politics or public policy, but I find it very interesting that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez hasn't been attending his private Kabbalah classes, angering Madonna. Check out this story in the New York Post.
"He's basically a Kabbalah school dropout," a source close to the Kabbalah Centre told msnbc.com, which was repeated by the Post, which is being repeated by Opinion Talk. "This is certainly off-putting to Madonna."
It's easier figuring out a pitcher's ERA than figuring the celebrity connections, but here goes: Rodriguez, 33, is called A-Rod by the cool folks, and he's been seeing Madonna, 50, who's called Madge by the even cooler folks. Madonna, of course, is a devotee of Kaballah and Rodriguez isn't, but went to classes anyway. Every guy knows why. If that makes the woman happy, you go, at least at first. . . But most guys only do this stuff to get in with a woman, and then their true feelings come out, and they stop pleasing.
So now Madonna isn't happy that A-Rod is skipping classes. That means the relationship is so over. You heard it here first, and I'm not even a celebrity blogger.
Now back to the important stuff. . . You figure a pitcher's ERA by taking the number of earned runs allowed, multiply that number by 9, and divide the total by the number of innings pitched. That gives you the average number of runs a pitcher will allow every nine innings.
Now A-Rod is not a pitcher so I suppose I should also give you the formula for calculating a batting average. You take the number of official at bats and divide that by the number of hits. In the season that just ended, Rodriguez had 510 official at bats and had 154 hits. That gave him a batting average in 2008 of .302. That means he hit safely about 30% of the time.
And you can't teach that in a Kabbalah class.
The question is, why Madonna? Last I checked, she looks like the Crypt Keeper, and I doubt A-Rod is using her for the publicity.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I've got fireplace burning bans on the news blog, Madonna on the Opinion Talk blog. Heather, are you going to do a post about California's legislature today?
Are you all starting a Wacky Tradesies Tuesday theme?
like my boy Jose Canseco has said, A-Rod wants to be like him. The only thing, though, Jose had Madonna when she was in her Prime.
With her personality...prime for her and when is debatable.
"Kabbalah has always been meant to be used, not just learned. Its purpose is to bring clarity, understanding, and freedom to our lives — and ultimately to erase even death itself."
Am I to believe that in KABALLAH class one can learn not to die?
Dub...Jose Canseco? Only Canseco's ego could say that A-Rod is trying to be him when Alex Rodriguez is 3 times the ball player Canseco could have ever been on his best day.
Don't take it personal, but Canseco and Barry Bonds are two players on my most hated ball players short-list.
As for Madonna...what's her problem? If he's not into it, he's not into it. Move on. I agree with you Jim, guys will do a lot of things to please a girl or get in her good graces, but the truth will eventually prevail. The relationship depends on what happens next.
And don't worry about putting in something a little different now and then...it's a nice change.
I am tired and therefore silly as such I will regret this but can't resist. I have no interest in Madonna or her private life. I was interested in what others might show as their interest so here I am. Pretty ho hum; however, I do agree with both of Scotts points with one clarification. Yes, guys will do a lot of things to please girls, driven by what they want to get into the most, which is not usually her good graces. HA! Isabell forgive me for my crass joke. I couldn't resist. One step backward in my aspirations to be a lady.
What's so crass about it. It's a blooming (my Brit. talk) fact. Kim Tanksly; your post reminds me of a song. "The naughty lady of Shady Lane has got the town in a whirl....Oh me Oh my Oh what a girl..." Are the beehivers old enough to know that song of yore?
I wonder what Madonna's daughter will think of Mother's earlier performances?????
And as for that Kaballah thing being able to erase death. I wonder if I have enough time to Kaballah myself immortal? Sounds nicer than being frozen (cryogenics) and eventually being thawed out. Oh me Oh my Oh, I am kidding about it. We have paid for real estate on Villa Avenue, Clovis California.
I know nothing of the Kabbalah beliefs, but isn't eternal "life" (note the quotes) a promise or belief of just about all religions? And no I don't want to make this a religious discussion.
When I was a kid my aunt used to call me the naughty lady of Shady Lane. I think I have one of those really thick record albums with that song on it. You know the type, full size like a 33 rpm but ran at the speed of a 78? Thrown like a fisbee it could slice someone's head off!
I can't believe no one thanked me for explaining how to calculate a pitcher's earned run average. Maybe you all already new how to do it.
MOI did not know, but then he loathes baseball, like watching paint dry it it. Now if you tell MOI how to figure out taxes, that would be useful.
It is 11:30 PM and we are all sleepy. I don't mind thanking you for whatever it is you thought we should be thanking you. I don't know a blooming thing about baseball. But thank you just he same.
Jimbo...Thanks for the refresher.Can you explain the WHIP statistic for pitchers that is so important to Fantasy Baseball Owners.
As a baseball traditionalist, I think many of the stats compiled these days get in the way of the enjoyment of this wonderful sport. Batting average, RBI's, homeruns, ERA, strikeouts, wins and losses should tell you everything you need to know about baseball and its players. I might also throw on-base percentage in there.
I checked Wikipedia to get an explanation of the WHIP stat -- walks plus hits per inning pitched. Wikipedia says "WHIP is a reasonable predictor of pitching success. It does not, however, give much insight into whether a particular pitcher gives up singles or home runs, even though the two types of pitchers may have identical WHIP statistics."
For an in-depth explanation of WHIP, go to this address:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walks_plus_hits_per_inning_pitched
HA....I didn't think of thanking you for the lesson in ERA but I was impressed you knew how. Can that be the same thing?
As for the stats....if we didn't have them, what would the Vin Scullys of the baseball world talk about between pitches? You can only mention their college, or where they were brought up from, so many times.
Thanks for the post.