Mason Park

In Chatsworth. Visited the field today, this is apparently where the (original) Bad News Bears was filmed. Driving up to it seemed familiar, the long long straight road that Buttermaker drove down as he careened into the unpaved parking lot off Mason Drive, poured out some Bud and topped the can off with Jim Beam (a fine start to the day).

But the park layout is barely recognizable. The parking lot is now a grass strip between the road and the field, and the hill the "North Valley Marching Band" walks down on opening day is where the new parking lot is. The field itself has been reworked, the wooden backstop and dugouts and the wooden outfield fence are gone and the grass infield is now bare dirt. Only the sight line from the visitor's bench - the trees in the outfield - seems familiar.

There was no little league this afternoon. But the field was well used by two latino teams playing hardball. If the original movie's inclusion of Miguel and Jose Aguilar acknowledged the diversity of 1976 Los Angeles, today's visit maybe reflected that reality even more. I think I was the only white guy in the whole park. Glad to see the field is well used, but are the white kids just home playing video games (or driving around LA wondering at how much the city has changed)? Sigh.

[Come to think of it, there was absolutely nothing - no plackard or marker that I could see- in the park to commemorate its part in film. Could it be that this is not the field?]

Paradox Watch

The March 12 edition of the "newspaper of record" weighs in with its take on child poverty in India.

Small, sick, listless children have long been India's scourge - "a national shame," in the words of its prime minister .... But Even after a decade of galloping economic growth, child malnutrition rates are worse here than in many sub-Saharan African countries, and they stand out as a paradox in a proud democracy.

Now I'm not about to take issue with the misery that is poverty, in India or elsewhere, but describing it as a paradox is wrong.
A paradox is an absurd statement that yields truth. There is nothing absurd here - that India is filled with grinding poverty that is unlikely to soon, if ever, reach the worst off in society is not hard to fathom. A country's economy, like its political system, is shaped (to a great extent) by its culture.

This is not about paradox. This is not even ironic. Poverty in India, much like in the US or Africa, is more about indifference than anything else. Maybe we read too much into "economics" and "democracy", two terms which are often used in the normative sense (we're a democracy - Yay), and forget neither has much to say about altruism. To a casual reader, the quoted passage may suggest that causality, that democracy should infer general well-being. I tend to think its the other way around, the fact of a strong economy or a vibrant democracy has little to say about how equitably the "general welfare" is spread about.

Ka-Zuma

Have been on hiatus for a while - these are busy times.

No pictures this morning, but it was gorgeous north of point Dume and I ran 10k to impress some co-workers (who characteristically said they were impressed I showed up). I've never run that far before, and I hardly sun at all.

Anyway, the run took us south of Zuma to a really beautify stretch of beach. I had a hard time paying attention to where I was running, the water was so lovely, but I know so cold.

After the run I grabbed my swag (new re-useable grocery bag - yay) and headed for that beach, put on my fins and dove in. Oh my it was cold. But I adjusted and caught some fun, if small, waves.

When I left, a lifeguard was opening a nearby tower and had the water temperature posted: 54 degrees. Chilly. But it's march, baseball season's beginning, and there is a full summer of swimming ahead.