mlk day off

i'm sitting on the couch, watching movies, and watching the trees in the field behind our house sway like ents. i've had the day of to remember mlk, jr., but i spent most of the morning calling the pediatrician to try to get jake in for cough that's not getting better. after a while with no answer, i presumed they were closed for the day and called the town clinic to get jake an appt. there. the appt. was at 3:30 so i took jake over to his preschool for about 5 hours (well, we're payin' for it either way...).

while he was gone, i watched murderball and 61*. murderball is a documentary about quadraplegic wheelchair rugby - yes, rugby. they basically play bumper cars with the chairs while trying to get the rugby ball to the other end of a basketball court.

61* is the hbo movie directed by billy crystal recounting the story of the 1961 season where roger maris and mickey mantle chase babe ruth's record of 60 home runs in a 154 game season. i always thought the asterisk was a cultural thing where everyone held the babe in higher regard, but maris actually had an asterisk next to his record until 1991, six years after his death. the movie showed how a lot of the writers and almost all of the fans were behind mantle and didn't like maris - mainly for his stoic demeanor. maris and mantle were actually really good friends the whole time and maris invited mantle to live with him and another player in queens in order to help mantle avoid the nyc nightlife. the movie was really good and interestingly the guy that played maris (barry pepper) also played dale earnhardt, sr. in the espn movie '3' and the guy that played mantle (thomas jane) was the more laidback guy from sideways.