Red Sox Magic Number - 96

With the Yankees losing to the Indians last night - the Red Sox Magic Number now stands at 96. Bear with me while I discuss the number 96 in movie, political and business terms.

Of the Top 10 money making movies from 1996 - I saw them all - most multiple times. Independence Day, Twister, Mission Impossible, The Rock, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 101 Dalmatians, Ransom, The Nutty Professor, Jerry Maguire, Eraser - I saw them all (it helped having kids for the Disney ones).

I did not see the two most critically acclaimed movies of the year - The English Patient and Shine. Had no interest then and even less interest now.

There was another movie that came out in 1996 that any of you who know me might be surprised that I missed but I confess that I've never seen even a minute of the movie Escape from LA. "Snake Plisken? I heard you were dead." Well Snake Plisken was dead to me as far as Escape from LA was concerned.

What's amusing is that I had planned to mention the movie Escape from New York when the Red Sox magic number was 97 but I never got around to that. That movie was supposed to be based in 1997. That's how pessimistic the outlook was during the days of the Carter administration. Then Ronald Reagan came into office and it was morning in America again as far as the economy was concerned. Starting with Reagan - Presidents understood the bottom line came down to "its the economy stupid" and pessimistic futuristic movies like Escape from LA no longer had a place in the popular consciousness. Now our politicians no longer understand how the economy works and think Big Government is the answer and not the problem. Pessimistic futuristic movies may be the least of our concerns if that continues.

Another thing I had planned to mention about 97 was the fact that in real life in 1997 it is significant to note that was the year that Steve Jobs returned to Apple Computer. In the future children may be asked about that on history tests.