The Explorers Club
No. CXXVIII - The Johnstown Flood of 31 May 1889 that claimed the lives of more than 2,200 souls.








Believe: Ducks 4-3 Red Wings (3 O.T.)
Five down, eleven to go. Best of seven: Detroit 1-1 Anaheim

What's worse than watching a hockey game on N.B.C.? Watching a hockey game on N.B.C. that goes into multiple overtime times. What's worse than watching a hockey game on N.B.C. that goes into multiple overtime times? Watching a hockey game on N.B.C. that goes into multiple overtime times, and which your team loses. What a thoroughly rotten ending to the afternoon.

Well, okay, fine, now it will take the Red Wings five games to advance to the Western Conference Finals. We all knew this wouldn't be a cakewalk. Time to dig deep and defeat the "Dicks." (I'm not just insulting them because I can. This past week, there was a photograph on the front page of the sports section of The Flint Journal featuring Anaheim defenseman Chris Pronger, from the series against the Sharks. Pronger's sweater was wrinkled just so, and when I showed the photo to my mother, a kind and generous soul, and asked her what the name of Pronger's team was, she replied, confusion in her voice, "The Dicks?" The U in Ducks was folded so that it looked for all the world like an I. The NAHEIM DICKS, the A in Anaheim also disappearing behind the wrinkling of Pronger's sweater. How tremendously appropriate, the Dicks.)

Do you believe? Down deep, after a loss, do you still believe? Or is it just a word to you? Me, I believe. Maybe not in five, maybe in six, maybe even in seven, but the Red Wings will win this series, and the next, and the next. Sixteen wins to retain Lord Stanley's Cup; five down, eleven to go. Go Wings!

Believe.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
William Shatner, "Common People" from Has Been (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I thought about getting up early enough to go to ten o'clock Mass, but last night I decided I'd rather sleep in, and instead set my sights on twelve o'clock Mass. Mistake. 'Twas First Communion for the parish's second graders, and the church was packed. Not quite Christmas or Easter packed, but a full house nonetheless. The Christmas-and-Easter-only Catholics irk me, but I do concede it's better they observe only those two holy days than none at all. But the first communion gawkers? I've no use for them. The old man seated to my left showed no sign of having ever attended a Catholic Mass, not reacting to a single one of the cues that we all know by rote. And it may be an unworthy, un-Christian thought, but as I sat through Mass the lyric kept running through my mind, "'Cause everybody hates a tourist."

Samstag, 3 Mai
MxPx, "Major Tom (Coming Home)" from On the Cover II (T.L.A.M.)