So I hope to be back to post about the election in the coming days and weeks (it’s way more fun to talk about it this time around!), but I wanted to pop in the remark on the fall classic.

None of my teams (A’s, Cards, Giants) are in any of the division series, but the the participants immediately made me hopeful for either a Windy City World Series or an all L.A. one.  Sure the ratings would be terrible, but it’s neat when it happens.  Of course, thus far the two Chicago outfits and the Angels are doing quite terribly, 0-2 each as I write this.  Which is lame because I don’t actually like the Dodgers.* (I recognize that as the Cubs are playing the Dodgers only one of them could survive to keep my silly dream alive, but since the Angels aren’t getting it done, I’m not really in the mood for theDodgers to advance - besides it’s the Cubs year!)

But the best thing about the playoffs?  Cal Ripken, Jr.  He has developed this rather goofy tic of ending random sentences with the above phrase, “or whatever else.”  Mr. Sassy theorizes that old Cal trained himself to not say “um” when providing his brilliant commentary, but he had to replace it with something, and that something is “or whatever else.”  Sometimes he says it super-fast, like he knows it’s nothing but a placeholder, but every time he says it, it is hilarious.

And now “or whatever else” the most popular catchphrase in the house.  It managed to supplant ever “all of them,” which is of course awesome, and still gets a lot of play.  I kind of love the universe right now.

*I like the other teams for stupid reasons, but whatever. The White Sox because during my formative years I saw Field of Dreams and Eight Men Out and wistfully romantic about them.  The Cubs I always liked because I’m into underdogs and Mark Grace and Ryne Sandburg made quite an impression on me as a kid.  And the Angels, well, it’s mostly because they’ve had their amusing naming history - California Angeles to Anaheim Angels to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which stupidly translates to The The Angels Angels of Anaheim.