songbird's crazy world

 And it’s a “your choice” week.  In honor of our visit to NASCAR, here are songs about cars.

 Today was the very last day of regular season baseball.  In order for the Mets to make the playoffs, two things had to happen today: (1) the Mets had to beat the Marlins; and (2) the Brewers had to beat the Reds.  Both had to happen or the Reds would be heading to the playoffs and the Mets would be heading home.  We watched the Mets game on tv, and the announcers kept updating us about the Reds game. I also tracked the Reds game on my iPhone.  Yes, we take our baseball seriously around here. The Yankees made the playoffs.  Drew hates the Yankees, but I will root for them. I rooted for both teams back in 2000, but when they met in the World Series I was 100% behind the Mets.   I’m not a huge fan of winter sports.  I like hockey and will root for the Islanders, but it’s not like baseball … though back in the 80’s, when the Islanders kept winning Stanley Cups … one of the victory parades went right past my dorm at Hofstra … I follow football only be...

 Shadows of the night Yes, that’s my shadow.  We were walking through the parking lot.

 So I posted that Drew won tickets to a  NASCAR event .  We went last night.  What I didn’t know is that Drew used to go to the stock car races in Islip when he was a kid.  He felt like he was reliving his childhood last night. Our tickets allowed us to access the pit. The scoreboard And the control tower… not only do the announce the races to the crowd, they stream the event on the internet. The way it’s set up, the racers do qualifying heats in the afternoon, and the actual races are at night.  Here’s the lineup. As you can see, there are many different types of car.  We got there during the qualifying heats and stayed for all of the actual races. It’s NASCAR, so the names of the sponsors are painted onto the cars.  Some of the drivers have big corporate sponsors, like State Farm insurance or Coors beer.  Others are sponsored by local businesses, like Syosset Trucks.  I was amused to see at least two cars sponsored by local law firms. ...

  The Entertainer (Theme from The Sting) Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! The Entertainer (The Theme from The Sting) 1973 Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it  here . Chosen in memory of Robert Redford: Aug. 18, 1936 - Sept. 16, 2025 1)  The Sting  marked the second teaming of Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The two enjoyed almost 40 years of friendship. One passion they shared was sports cars. Newman raced Porsches professionally and Redford was deft behind the wheel of a classic Karmann Ghia convertible. Think about one of your longest friendshi...

 When I woke up this morning the sky was full of helicopters.  Long Island is blessed with an abundance of public parks and facilities.  Bethpage State Park is about a 15 minute drive from my home. Bethpage State Park has several golf courses, including the famous (infamous?) Bethpage Black.  Bethpage Black is suitable for professional golf tournaments and has hosted the US Open multiple times. (I remember   2012  and   2019 .) And this weekend it’s the site of the Ryder Cup. That means crowds, traffic, extra security … The park is small, so they’ve set up public parking at Farmingdale State College and will run a shuttle bus.  They’re running shuttle buses from the Long  Island Railroad station in Farmingdale  (it’s closer to the park than the station in Bethpage).  People who live near the park are renting out their driveways, and sometimes their houses, to golf fans.  Farmingdale has a cute downtown near the railroad station...