Friday, September 19, 2008By NostraDennis
I was reading through a dog-eared copy of Fahrenheit 451 the other day, a very good book which was unfortunately coupled with a very ordinary movie version. The more I watch cable news and network newscasts, and try to cut my way through the 24/7 crap they dish out, the more I'm reminded that this novel about a totalitarian government gone awry is even more prescient today than it was in 1953, when Bradbury wrote it.
As a Mets fan, though, it didn't take long to read between the lines and find out that Ray Bradbury was a baseball fan, too. He must have been. Could he have seen 55 years into the future, and gazed upon the Mets' 2008 season? Read on:
"I'd like to ask you something, only I don't really dare."
"Go ahead."
"Is it true that a long time ago, firemen used to save games and not blow leads?"
"Really, your uncle is right. You are light in the head. Firemen, put fires out? Who told you that?"
"I don't know. Someone. But is it true?"
"What a strange idea. Houses have always been fireproof."
"Ours isn't."
"Well, you got that right. Then your house should be condemned one of these days. It has to be destroyed, and you will have to move to a house that is fireproof. Maybe to that one over there, out past left field. Perhaps that house is fireproof."
"Tell me then, why do firemen blow leads as often as they do?"
"Well, it's a job like any other. You get to travel all over the country. Good work with lots of variety. Monday, Schoeneweis gets burned; Tuesday, Heilman; Wednesday, Sanchez; Thursday, it's Smith; Friday, Ayala, and Saturday and Sunday, Stokes and Feliciano. We burn them to ashes, and then we burn the ashes. That's our official motto."
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