Mexican Weather Girl Yanet Garcia Respects Summer In Mexico With A Bikini, Tom Brady In Purple & Clyde's Gold
I nearly forgot just how big of a weekend it is in Ohio
While I was deep into my National Tractor Pull Championship trip preparation, it occurred to me that this is also a huge weekend for Wiffle ball as it's also time for the Wrenway Park Wiffle Ball tournament in tiny Wren, OH.
I am happy to report that the event is still on, but I hate to also report that the tournament social media presence has gone silent. I need those guys to pump out the Wiffle ball reports. It's a part of Americana we cannot allow to die. Wren is a special place and if the weather holds up, I'll most likely make the two-hour drive on Saturday to catch some action.
Look at this place. Look at how special it is. This event takes place in a town of like 156 residents depending on if someone has recently moved to Celina. There's one corner bar in town that serves canned Busch Light. No kegs. Cell service doesn't exist in this western Ohio town that sits about two miles east of the Indiana line.
(Wrenway Park in Wren, OH (pop. 156) / Joe Kinsey Collection)
The more I write about Wren, the more I need this action in my life. It gives me chills to think of hammering a pork tenderloin and a Busch Light in center field.
But, first up is the National Tractor Pull tonight in Bowling Green, OH. It's supposed to pour this afternoon, but that's perfect because myself and the text group won't head over to the pulls until later as the sun is setting. By then, the weather is supposed to be amazing.
This time of year, the sound of the tractors is like the birds chirping to my ears. Stop and listen to this freedom. Listen to the muscle. Listen to the pride in those roars. Rip on Ohio all you want, but I'll put our tractor pulling and Wiffle ball up against any state in the union.
Do you think the pussies in North Korea have events as cool as this one?
- Tractor pull expert Jon D. will be in Bowling Green all weekend:
Guy G. is a justifiably proud Joe Eder neighbor. Awesome puller, good man. But he's not the reigning champ in NTPA Unlimited Modified.
After three years of dominance with his four-engine "Emax," Eder was dethroned in 2023 by the past champion Adam Bauer and his five-engine "Cross Threaded."
I wouldn't be so picky, but the above was just an excuse to recommend getting a bright orange Bauer/WFO Team shirt. "WFO" stands for Wide F-----g Open.
The aforementioned Adam Bauer.
Wide F-----g Open.
My Subway experience
I have to make this quick because I'm running out of time this morning. Thursday, it was reported that Subway is in bad shape and that there was an all-hands-on-deck meeting inside the company to turn the tide.
So, naturally, I decided to go get lunch from Subway to see what's up.
Here's what I found:
- The Subway I went to in Perrysburg, OH was PACKED. At one point, I counted 16 people in the store with multiple customers rolling in for pickup which probably pushed the number to at least 20 at one time. Capacity for the place is 44.
- There were three workers trying to keep up with in-store orders and mobile orders. They were overwhelmed.
- No, there aren't too many fast-casual sandwich shops on that side of town where there are more and more business casual companies popping up, including a hospital system that's across the street.
- My kids were fine with their sandwiches. Mrs. Screencaps wasn't disgusted and my club sandwich was fine.
- The footlong cookie checked in at a footlong. They're not cheating the customer.
- I DO NOT own Subway stock and this is #NOTSponsored
- Would I go back? Not at lunch with the line that I experienced. The sandwich was fine. I wasn't disgusted. The vegetables were fresh. The store has been updated. The Subway I grew up with has been modernized. It now feels like a fancy hospital cafeteria with the wallpaper and pictures on the wall.
- Women still like Subway. Customers were probably split 50/50 male to female.
- A Subway sandwich that costs $12 isn't sustainable. There's the problem.
You guys love the college drop-off topic…it's great to tap into your memory bank
- Alan remembers:
The drinking age in Florida had been lowered to 18 and my older brother took me out partying on Miami Beach the night before I left for college. I woke up hungover and my pissed off dad, without ever saying a word, drove me to Miami International where I, a suitcase and Schwinn ten-speed bike were put on a 747 to Atlanta, and then a puddle jumper to Tuscaloosa, where I did not know a soul.
The men's dorms were being renovated and I ended up sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a couple of weeks as the third guy in a two-guy room. I wondered what the hell I was doing there, but no way was I going to go crawling back to Miami.
My parents got divorced that year and I never went home again, and by the end of that first semester you could not have dragged me away from Bama with a team of Clydesdales.
I love Screencaps -- an essential part of my every day reading.
- Mike N. shares:
Fantastic subject and I have really enjoyed the stories. The "let the kid lead, then do one more thing to help" was well articulated & solid advice. How did that poor guy get all the shattered Thimbleberry Jam out of his trunk of clothes?
When I hear trunk, I think Tom Hanks and Joe vs. the Volcano.
When we dropped our son off at A&M two years ago there was a welcome bus driving up and down the East campus dorm street with a group highly attractive college coeds on top with megaphones shouting "You're Here! You're Here!". Those SEC schools are just different.
The dads are happy the kid isn't going to be living in the basement, and just hoping the elevators aren't broke for the 13th floor dorm room (mine did at my move in day at Bromley at Illinois).
However, this is one of those "main event days" for moms: day you were born, first day of school, the day you leave home, day you get married, grandchildren. Anything anyone can do to help them out makes for a good trip.
Time moves. Enjoy the moments.
- Jon in Denver emails:
Not sure what the "correct" answer to the college drop off is- I am the youngest of 4 so my folks split real fast after getting me situated...What i do know is this is NOT the answer. Cut the cord Mom. you arent 18 anymore...
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/mom-sleeps-over-daughters-dorm-004756109.html
- Bill in Texas remembers his post-secondary education:
I went off to a military school (Kemper) at the ripe age of 15. One small suitcase bc they supplied everything. Parents drove down there and dropped me off….then the school told them to leave. Knew no one but you learn who’s who when in close confines.
Was there sophomore(HS) thru freshman(Col). Went off to a college after that. Drove up in a 65 VW van with a buddy with a Honda mini 50 and a bag of — under the back seat. No parents. Got stopped for driving the wrong way in the dark. Could drink at 18 there. Nut said
How did Screencaps reader Joe M. end up in college at 15?
- Joe M. shares the story:
Logistically, it played out like this: I spent a "semester" in First grade, when I was supposed to have been enrolled in Kindergarten, and I was doing fine so they left me there. Right after I started my sophomore year of high school, my parents informed me that they would be transferred out of the Middle East to Charleston right before my senior year. Since all Navy bases are in fantastic areas in the US, we started planning my credit hours so I would enter my senior year only needing English 12. I applied for early enrollment so could go straight to college instead of wasting a year in high school. I took two quarters of English, mailed my transcript to my old high school, they mailed me a diploma.
Environmentally, it was living in places that had one TV station (maybe, and it was Armed Forces Network) in English. Or living in BFE, where you might get reception of the 700 Club (flawless picture,) and McGyver (good keeping signal through the whole episode.) My family didn’t have a color TV until I was 8, and never had cable until I was 13. All that led me to be a voracious reader, of anything. I would routinely pull a volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica off the shelf and just randomly start reading something out of boredom. All is not rosy, I dropped out/flunked out of college twice (ego and testosterone are powerful drugs.) Third time was the charm when I had to quit a high-paying tech job and pay my own way this time. My grades went from sub 2.0 to Dean’s list grades. The smartest thing I ever did that last go round was to attack my professors after the first class and simply ask, "What do I need to do in order to get an ‘A’ in your class?"
- Jon C. writes:
I’m barely a boomer (born December ’64) and from what I’ve seen, it is not just millennials that have this issue.
Totally agree with deleting social apps and stop watching the news 24/7. Biggest thing, get your ass off the couch and get some exercise, preferably outdoors. Plenty of studies have shown not only the physical benefits but the emotional and psychological benefits of activity.
Show off your meat!
- Bebe at the Green Diamond Grille in Barberton, OH shares:
Four 4oz patties, lettuce, grilled onions, pickles, corned beef, egg, and cheese!
It's the Risley Burger, named after a friend of mine that devours that bastard!
Hey Millennials, why are you so unhappy & don't tell me it's because of ‘gifted’ classes when you were in school?
Thursday, I addressed the growing number of Millennials who are blaming their unhappiness and lack of drive on ‘gifted’ classes they took in school. I think it's because they constantly look at social media and they're comparing their lives against people they see on social media who seem like they're ‘killing it’ and are uber-successful.
Folks, it's a mirage.
Pack a cooler. Go to a tractor pull. Go to a Wiffle ball tournament.
- Tom T. writes:
I think a lot of the millennial angst stems from social media and the elevated personal expectations that are instilled in students who score high on standardized tests.
I am 58, I was "gifted". My life turned out just fine…not as fine as some….but finer than others…you could say that I made the playoffs with an 8-9 record
. Social media started very soon after I got divorced. My initial reaction to Facebook was… My life sucks right now, why would I want to look at carefully curated pictures of everyone else’s "perfect" life. I still feel the same way 18 years later…although my personal life has gotten much better.
- Tony A. writes:
That one is a hard pill to swallow... I aced some test in grade school back in the 70s and got put into the gifted program before I went to middle school.
Once that happened, did the bar go up a few pegs at home? Of course. I also got "picked up" in the Duke University National Gifted and Talented Program. As part of that program, I took the SAT when I was 12 – that's right, in 7th grade... I think I scored circa 750 overall – not going to get you into a top college as a HS senior but respectable since I hadn't had algebra, geometry, trig, or calculus at this point...
I got re-evaluated prior to HS, which solidified my position in the program. That allowed me a few advantages in HS – I skipped a year of math and English and was ahead of most of my class all the way through... I also lettered in football and soccer, bailed hay in middle school, unloaded trucks at a paint and wallpaper store when I was 16, and worked 12-hour days in a lumber yard the summer I graduated from high school.
I've spent most of my adult life in/around the military, did two tours in Afghanistan, and still work for DoD 30 years later. I've been "behind the scenes" for years doing whatever necessary to keep our warfighters (and the general public) safe. I'd really like to know "what exactly" was so f--king stressful in her life that burned her our so young... I suspect that she has never done any "hard" work in her life and needs external validation to establish self-worth...
Thanks for letting my rant...
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That's it, I'm out. It's about to rain for the second time in about a month. I'm so ready for it.
Let's go have an incredible weekend. Soak it all in and Respect Summer.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com