Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

$100 arm, 10-cent head

Ollie Perez is experiencing knee pain, which is why the Mets placed him on the disabled list. Yep. If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I can give you cheap. I’ll even through in a certain left-handed pitcher.

I know I’m late to the party on this — he was DL’d Saturday — but I had to comment. I used to like Ollie, though he had a world of talent that, if it could be harnessed, would result in him being an elite pitcher. Now, I am convinced that his skills are eroding even as his head remains a problem.

We’ve had three-plus years of this nonsense, of Perez throwing a good game or two — maybe even a gem — and then imploding so spectacularly that you have to question whether he has a secret twin. Enough. The Mets need someone who can go out there consistently, pitch into the seventh and keep them in games. They do not need a guy who will strike out the side in the first and then walk the stadium in the second.

What’s especially maddening here is that Perez apparently does not see that it is in his best interests to go down to AAA, as the Mets have proposed. For whatever reason — pride, I suspect — he’d rather eat up a roster spot and pretend that he can find himself while being kept out of games. Just dumb, dumb, dumb.

If the Mets did not owe him so much money, he would have been dumped by now.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Bird in the pool

It was sad to see this bird try to flee the dogs' pool a few minutes ago. It must have fallen from the weepong cherry and was frantically trying to get out. There wasn't much water — only a couple of inches — but the plastic pool walls are about 2 feet tall and it couldn't make it over.

I noticed it as I was unwrapping the paper and drinking coffee and fan out. I grabbed a shovel and, as the bird made a leap, got underneath it and helped it out.

After a few minutes, with the dovs itching to see what was going on, it left. I didn't notice if it flew off or not.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

More on the BP boycott

As I wrote in my column yesterday, a direct boycott of BP as a resposne to the gulf oil spill is badly flawed because it ignores the larger impact that oil has on society and that the oil industry has on the environment and the economy.

My friend Rob Stolzer, who lives in Wisconsin, commented to me on my Facebook page that the boycott also would have the unintended consequence of harming small businesses, the mom-and-pop owners of the service stations that sell BP gas.

But environmental columnist Jeff McMahon offers what seem like rational and potentially effective alternatives to a direct boycott, one that attacks BP but also the other oil companies while moving us toward a new paradigm of energy use.

McMahon (who quotes my blog in his piece) provides “Five ways to boycott without helping Exxon“:

  1. “Boycott bottled water,” which is responsible for the use of about 50 million barrels of oil  a year “just manufacturing the plastic bottles for bottled water” plus an additional amout for transportation.
  2. “Avoid plastics and other petrochemical products, including chemical pesticides and fertilizers,” which are manufactured by BP and other oil companies.
  3. “Buy bulk foods and put them in reusable bags” — we could save 120 million barrels of oil worldwide annually by switching to reusable bags and loose produce, bulk items and nonprocessed foods use less oil.
  4. “Be a locavore,” which cuts down on energy used for transportation and the need for heavy fertilizer and pesticide use.
  5. “Boycott aluminum cans,” about a third of which are made by BP subsidiary Arco Aluminum.

And — this is his sixth suggestion:

Don’t buy something new just to boycott BP. Some in the green-lifestyle press have advised people to buy aluminum water bottles instead of plastic, unaware BP may have supplied the aluminum. Others urge glass food containers instead of plastic, or petroleum-free cosmetics, etc. The green-lifestyle press often falls prey to the consumerist impulse to buy, buy, buy. But unless it grew in your back yard, every new product arrives with oily footprints. If you use plastic containers now, replacing them with glass will only burn more fossil fuels.

These are sensible suggestions; follow them and stick it to BP.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.