More people read the
Night Owl’s comments than read my blog. It is a fact. It makes sense. He runs a great blog and EVERYBODY reads it and comments. I read his comments too. I had planned on boycotting him after the
brutal bipping he issued me (on my 400th post no less) but his blog is too good. I just make a really angry face while I read it. Anyway, this week he wrote a Pulitzer worthy post on
nicknames. I made the comment that my nickname is Bacon. Since that comment, most of my messages have been addressed to Bacon. The Owl is all powerful (pOWLerful). It’s okay. All of my actual friends call me Bacon. It’s time my virtual friends did as well. It is honestly difficult pulling off all of my different names. I write a lot of emails (300 per day at least). For school I use my real name (top secret). For work I use my real name (still top secret). As a writer I have a pen name. As a photographer I have a different lens name. As a writer of fiction I use a totally different name. For roller derby I am known as Side of Bacon, or Bacon for short. My record label is called Bacon Towne Records (yes, that is my neck). I go by Marck Bacontowne or Bacon. I have bacon related tattoos and now have bacon inspired clothing and accessories. Still, within the blog-o-sphere, I have always been Troll (and I have never recieved any Troll gifts...)
Then again, everything is not always better with Troll. This year for Christmas I got a bunch of gifts that were Bacon related.
I wonder if the Night Owl gets Owl themed presents. Do they have owl-flavored dental floss? I am sure that gummie owls exist and there are likely Owl-aids and Owl banks...
Do your readers send you these things along with Ron Cey cards?
I will say that of all of my bacon presents the bacon Band-Aids have been the most useful. I am waiting for a special occasion to take the dental floss for a spin.
The bacon air freshener was in my car and I actually carry the bacon wallet.
The bacon sculpture is awesome because someone made it for me and I love the piggy banks (we have 100 piggy banks easily),
but my favorite is the Patron Saint of Bacon figure. I will take it out of the box and show some better pics one day. Apparently it is Saint Anthony who is bacon’s patron saint. There is a sticker on the box that states “Bless your bacon” and Saint Anthony is holding a skillet with 2 strips of bacon in it. It comes with a prayer and further states on the back of the box that “Saint Anthony is the protector of pigs, hermits, gravediggers and epileptics”
The prayer is supposed to assist in the enjoyment of quality bacon (no one needs assistance, but..) It reads “Oh wondrous Saint Anthony, please bless me with an abundance of quality bacon and grant me the patience and timing to properly fry each glorious strip, Amen”. Is there an Owl prayer? Do I have you beat there? Anyway, I love these useless takers of space. My house is a delightfully cluttered mess. The wife and I are both VERY busy people and we have no young children living with us. Just her and I, the dog and Sally Cat and we don’t mind. I LOVE my palace of clutter. Someday I will post pictures. Our house is raised and the whole first level is a garage, but we have an indoor staircase which is decorated in old school punk rock show flyers. We collect street signs and will hang anything on the wall. There is no bare wall space in the casa de Troll.
No empty shelf space either. If there were, that is where the next stack of cards would land. Anyway, this is my nickname post. I had to copy cat that insomniac owl. It’s what I do. Anybody else have a nickname with corresponding knick-knacks?
If anyone needs me I will be at Tropicana Field hanging with the 2010 American League leading
Tampa Bay Rays! I hope they can hang onto first place for a while. We will see. The team hasn’t posted a list of who is attending and signing. I do know that they are charging 20 bucks for an all-day autograph wristband, but all of the proceeds go to Haiti Relief. I believe it is still free for kids. Esther Gin N Juice will be joining me. I
gave her a whole stack of cards to hang on to. Carlos Pena is her top priority. Esther Gin N Juice is a nickname, but it is less knick-knackable than Bacon with its duel meaning. That is all, enjoy the wonders of bacon! It makes EVERYTHING BETTER! Oh, to the reader who sent me the Jonny Gomes statue and didn’t include a letter: THANK YOU!!! I LOVE IT!
If there are any country music fans out there who know who
Adrian Ray is, he will be at our bout on Sunday. You never know who you are gonna see at a Bradentucky Bombers event… Thanks for the fodder
Owl, I bow to the power of your words... Everyone else, please tell me your nicknames! Who knows, there might be a small prize involved... Go Rays! Go Bombers! Troll out.
My wife and I run a record label together. It’s called Bacon Towne Records and we release only vinyl records of punk, hardcore and thrash bands. Our house is decorated with framed records, records nailed to walls and gig posters from our bands. I also collect roller derby memorabilia. This is a newer collection, but the more my wife and I get involved in the sport the more fascinated I am with its history and the history of roller skating in general. A few weeks back one of my wife’s customers brought her in a pair of aluminum roller skates that are stamped 1940. Nice! My Grandfather (Pop-Pop) on my Dad’s side was a lifetime Air Force man and remained a pilot after his retirement. 
He was a pioneer in aviation, hung out with the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart and has the pictures to prove it. That began my fascination with vintage aviation. I don’t have any of that stuff at my house, but my family donated many of his pictures and uniforms and equipment to a museum in Connecticut, the rest of it is stored at my parent’s house. My grandfather on my Mom’s side was a lifetime machinist. That is the career path I have taken, too. Machinists love their tools and thusly I collect machining tools and gages. I recently bought a Starrett “Last Word” gage. Its number dates it to the 30’s and it still works! Okay, this is going somewhere… The last oversized “card” I picked up is this, a 1962 Sports Champions color record album of Twins slugger Bob Allison. 
I had never seen one of these before and it hits my collection on multi-levels. First, it is vintage baseball. My top level in collecting. Second, it’s a RECORD! Third it is made by Columbia Records. That is where my Grandfather worked as a machinist for 45 years. Fourth, in 1959 my Pop-Pop worked in Washington at the Pentagon and attended nearly all of the Senators games. 
He and President Eisenhower had known each other for many years and attended several Sens games together. According to my father in 1959 they agreed that Killebrew and Bob Allison were going to make the Senators contenders. They did team up to make their team a force, but they did it in Minnesota, but my Grandfather (Pop-Pop) remained a fan and flew to the Twin Cities to watch his old team. In yet another connection, two years ago my wife was writing a paper on ataxia, the disorder that took Allison’s life. While researching the disorder she came across Bob Allison and spent a day talking of his accomplishments in baseball. He won the Rookie of the Year in 1959 for the Senators when he hit .261 with 30 homers, 85 RBI, 13 steals and a league leading 9 triples. The Sens still finished in the basement and Allison was overshadowed by Harmon Killebrew who had too many games to qualify for ROY, but led the AL in homers in his first full season in the big leagues. 
Allison was an All Star as a rookie and made the trip twice more. He paced the AL in runs in ’63 and topped 20 homers 8 times in his 13 year career. You can view all of William Robert Allison's stats here. I mentioned in the top of this post that I play all of my records. I have. Every single record in my personal collection (I sell new punk rock records) has been played. I don’t know if I should play this one though. It is 48 years old and has not yet been played. It’s a dilemma. Naturally I want to track down every single record from this series, but this one will always be my favorite. Oh, in an effort to break up all of the text up top I included my other two acquisitions... A '93 Stadium Club Master Photo of Wade Boggs (even as a Red Sox hater I really like this card!) and a 2003 Prospect Premium bat relic of Carl Crawford from '03 Bowman. I will probably post this one again cuz its really neat! The Boggs is on the block Sox fans! Oh, as an end note I also collect vintage camera gear and engineering supplies and beer signage. Thanks for reading! Go Rays! I love this game, I love my hobbies! Troll out.
