61 Comments

Man, you and your dad have earned the day off. Lucky for you, there probably won't be any baseball news worth talking about today, so enjoy the day. Have a bourbon on me. Watch some Marvel stuff. And take care!

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I, for one, am looking forward to the longer version of Craig's day as a mule...

Just don't make that Marvel movie "Howard the Duck" or that bourbon, well, there's a challenge for ya: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/jan/21/if-there-s-a-worst-bourbon-let-s-find-i/

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Mar 3, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

Don’t forget to pay the mortgage too, please. I decided not to remind you yesterday.

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For a day with no newsletter, this is a top tier edition. Mystery, intrigue, chicanery, and sarcasm. You checked all the boxes. No Columbo though, so yeah, today doesn’t count.

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maybe he used a rumpled raincoat to mule the drugs....

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Mar 3, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

"Um, just one more thing, Mr. Calcaterra..."

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I remember trying to get my dad from the CCU after his heart surgery to the rehab facility. It’s a thing. Take all the time you need.

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Did you offer to end the baseball strike as a bargaining chip at any point?

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Mar 3, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

I’m slightly insulted that you had a quasi illegal, quasi cross country smuggling operation on your hands and didn’t call me.

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It’s the kind of thing you can’t even believe until you go through it. Personally I think you need to take tomorrow off, too, and have a long weekend to recover. Try to get a massage. I bet your body’s holding on to a lot of stress, too.

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Mar 3, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

"I had somehow not committed any federal crimes." You almost certainly did. https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781982112516

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I know there are millions of poor souls dealing with a madman in Europe right now but the fact that we have to do things like this on a daily basis to help the people we love recover from illness is disgusting. In a country with more than enough wealth and solutions, we are all being abused by a system that only listens to lobbyists, big pharma and corrupt politicians. Infuriating.

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Mar 3, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

5 years as an Adminstrator in a care home. I understand completely.

Just a tip, hide the drugs in your upper coat pocket. They will show a bulge in your pants that few of us can lay claim to, and jiggle too much in cargo pockets or coat pockets where you put your hands. In a pinch, stick them in the back of your trousers at the belt line and cinch it tight.

We still know you have them, but plausible denyablity helps all of us.

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Obviously, stuff some cotton or something in the bottle so the pills don't rattle.

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screenshotting this all for later personal reference

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I am relatively sure you earned the day off. Kudos for not breaking any laws! We wish the best to you, Carlo and your dad. Also, along with the Healthcare system, baseball is broken too. I have the utmost faith that you can write baseball back into the half-cracked column.

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For Want Of A Boot seems to be freely available at

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6uqo4k

I'm not saying that it should be available in your location, but maybe it is.

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It would be appropriate to watch it through less than perfect means. Though last I checked, it's also on Hulu.

Love this one because, unlike most episodes of TV shows where we watch the "great river of commerce" at work, it ends us as a failure. (I am of course referring to a similar episode of Deep Space Nine.)

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I've always had something against this one and I think it is in large part for the reason you cite. Hawkeye and Trapper are supposed to be schemers of the Finest Kind and to have to go through all of that for a pair of boots (and not get them) seems off.

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Craig - you are one the lucky families that had you there to advocate for their relative. I have been in healthcare (homecare/hospice/nursing home) for 37 years and without someone like you to be responsible, it would be a lot worse. That your dad is in a "quite nice" nursing facility is a miracle, too.

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Our system is so whacked. I’m glad you were there for your dad. Don’t forget to work in a little rest today too.

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It is whacked. Bad things happen to people with all sorts of health systems, but ours responds so very poorly.

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Classic episode. Sgt. Zale was a great character. MASH jumped the shark right around the time Zale was effectively replaced with Sgt. Rizzo. BJ’s mustache is also a pretty reliable little of demarcation.

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The health system, if one can call it that, is chaotic evil

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As compared with bureaucracy in general, which is simply Chaotic Neutral.

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