A tummy-tossing trip to the old ball game

When I was in the third grade, I was named a last-minute substitute to go to a Red Sox game with the third-grade patrol boys. I was so excited that I threw up my milk at lunchtime. I don't get that excited about many things anymore.

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At that age, I really didn't understand how baseball was played, but I did see my father's hero Ted Williams get a hit. I think that later today I will buy a Ted Williams T-shirt, sporting number 9, to commemorate the event.

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In those days, third-graders were entrusted to stop traffic with red flags on long poles and let pupils cross the street. That would be unthinkable today, yet I suspect the patrol boys of yore were often more alert than some of the people I see doing the job now. And they certainly earn more than  a once-a-year Red Sox trip to Fenway Park was worth ... in those days, anyway.

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Did you know that the letters in "ELEVEN PLUS TWO" can be rearranged to read "TWELVE PLUS ONE"? Amazing.

Faces that shine brightly in memory

Eight months have gone by since my 50th high school reunion, but I remain haunted by the wall of photos. This was a display of graduation pictures of classmates who have died, some recently and others decades ago. In all, about 50 of the 250 graduates had left us.  I knew about some of the deaths, of course, having read about their terrible accidents or heard about their debilitating illnesses. But there were many I  was looking forward to seeing at the reunion. There, for instance, was my grammar school buddy who, I learned, had been dead for two years because of ALS. There was the woman from my old neighborhood who called me a few years back to compliment me on a newspaper article I had written. I was told that she had tried to hang on long enough to go to the reunion, but missed by a couple of months. And there were many classmates I hadn't seen, or even thought much about,  since high school, and their deaths were the hardest to accept because in my mind they were still 18 years old and alive and lively.

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To answer Friday's puzzlement, here are 10 combinations that make 23 cents: 23 pennies;  one nickel and 18 pennies; 2 nickels and 13 pennies; 4 nickels and 3 cents, 3 nickels and 8 pennies.1 dime and 13 pennies; 1 dime and 1 nickel and 8 pennies; 1 dime and 2 nickels and 3 pennies; and 2 dimes and 3 pennies.

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I don't know anyone with swine flu, but I have known a few swine in my life.

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How 'bout them Red Sox!

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I have never seen a Star Trek episode or movie and I'm certainly not going to start now.