Thoughts: 911 (see also), Prop 12 (Texas), and Lost in Translation. Just a quick thing on the last item ... excellent movie ... perhaps the best movie of the summer thus far.

This year many popular members of the entertainment industry died; the latest were John Ritter and Johnny Cash, though with Cash's lifestyle, it is amazing he lasted this long. In a bit of black humor, the daily horoscope feature in my local paper featured Ritter, whose birthday was coming up ... it's words on his future was a bit mistaken. There is some talk of Ritter's tv show being continued with another actor, but I find this distressing. The show is built around him and is only moderately successful as it is; why force the issue by trying to replace Ritter? For instance, "NewsRadio" went downhill after Phil Hartman was replaced. I would also like to say that Ritter had shown more talent than some might think, especially in dramatic roles such as "Slingblade" and certain guest shots.

Losing 3-0 vs. Detroit ("hey, we need to win sometime") the day when both of its competitors also lost might just be seen as the final nail in the coffin of KC's season ... bad as they played of late, over the last week or two, they had a few chances to keep within spitting distance ... 3.5 games at this point isn't quite there. On the other hand, if they would lose, losing against 20 game loser Mike Maroth (still arguably the ace of the staff, and not as bad as his record suggests) is in some sense forgivable ... in the sense, that one feels sorry for the guy. Then again, that 20 game losing record wasn't matched for years, why not set a new record in futility? Well, he has a few games to do it.