Monday Morning Misc Musings

1) If Labor Day (celebrated in the United States and some other countries today) is a day that was designed to recognize the contributions of workers and the progress achieved through union movements, why do most people get the day off work? Shouldn't everyone work extra that day?

2) September can be a terribly exciting month for baseball fans if their team looks to be headed toward the playoffs or is in a heated pennant chase. Last year both the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs went to the playoffs -- the White Sox getting in only by playing an extra winner-take-all game against the Minnesota Twins -- a game I attended and can say was the most dramatic game I ever saw in person -- and the Cubs looking to be heading to their first World Series since World War II. In 2009, however, both teams' seasons are over.

I usually don't pay serious attention to the Chicago Bears football season until the baseball regular season is over. This year -- and especially with the Bears having a real quarterback -- the Bears season is primo right from the start.

3) I work in a profession that tends to attract pretty nice people as workers. If I am ever tempted to forget that evil exists, I need only remember two men I have known who were imfamous for their deadly deeds. One, Brian Dugan, was recently in the headlines as a murder trial will be coming up on September 22. In a very complicated case, two men were earlier sent to death row for ten years for the murder Dugan claims that he committed by himself. The men were later cleared, although some people question if they were really innocent. Dugan has been in prison since 1985 for two other murders. He used to live on the next block from my parent's house. We played together when we were kids.

The big enchalada, however, is a former college colleague, Michael Swango , also know to some as the "Doctor of Death." Swango is believed to have killed between 35 and 60 patients in the United States and later Zimbabwe. Poison was his specialty. It is almost beyond comprehension that someone trained in such a humanitarian profession could kill people with absolutely no remorse.

4) I reactivated my facebook account (which I never really used) and have recently been connecting with friends I have not had contact with for 15-25 years. What a trip! It is wonderful to find that so many of these people are living great lives.

5) I saw Inglourious Basterds last night. There was no mistaking that this is a Quentin Tarantino film. What a fantastic performance by Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa. Brilliant.

Happy Labor Day. Enjoy your day off -- if you don't have to work today, that is ...

And oh yeah -- the winning ways continue

Although I donked out of a few private tournaments last week, I did take down two more. I must be doing something right.