Picher, A-Rod, iPhone

If you're a Yankee hater, here is more fuel for your fire. This guy can't catch a break. I don't think many other players actually like or respect this guy--maybe as a player, not a person. But he's not all bad. My guess is that he's one of those players/people who just doesn't connect well with people. Such a stud athlete, people always wanted to be his friend until he became an adult. Now the people who want to be his friend, he cannot trust--just people who want something for free. Anyway...

I should move to Israel. I'd be envied. Really, the iPhone is the coolest thing. I'm not a gadget guy. And this is such a smart machine. It's my first iPod, of which I have become one of the iPod drones in the world, arriving at work with the earbuds in place. Zoned out. I find it is a crutch for the introvert side of me that really doesn't like things like elevator small talk, forced hallway smiles, and talk about the weather. But I realize the bleakness of a world full of people lost in their iPods--I think of a New York train or Chicago street.

You may have heard of the tornados that hit northeastern Oklahoma a few days ago, killing 6 in the small town of Picher, Oklahoma. What you may not know is that this was perhaps the knockout blow to this old mining town. Because of lead mining, Picher was born. And now, because of lead mining, Picher is dying. The government, after acknowledging the environmental disaster in Tar Creek, is buying out residents homes in an effort to displace them from an unsafe living. This story has been profiled in many places. Notably, I happened to read this article days before the tornado hit. A picture or two says a thousand words. Here is a video featuring a resident of Picher and former miner. (Plus, those of you unfamiliar with the nuances of the modern day Oklahoma accent, you can hear it in the narrators' voices in those features) Another article from over a year ago. There's even a documentary about the small town. This is a sentimental story, not that I have ever been to Picher, but I have driven through so many of these small towns in Oklahoma and Texas. And to think the people were unknowingly exposed to so much lead, but yet the town was sustained by the industry and worked dutifully to support the American industrial machine. So now you can fully understand the story behind the story of the tornados this week--that they struck perhaps the final blow to Picher, OK.