Thoughts while lounging by the pool on a warm night amidst the awful realization the summer is not only here, but, here to stay (at least for the next 5 1/2 months)..

* How about the Red Sox taking five of six from the Bronx Bombers over the past two weekends? One can gloss over the numbers all you want, but the fact is, if things remain this way for the next few weeks, the Yankees won’t have much of a bullpen to call upon for the rest of the season. Their starting pitching is in tatters, and there’s no way anyone can rightly expect their offense to carry the load over a long season. The awful truth is, the Yankees are an old team, have no starting rotation they can count on, and a bullpen on the verge of collapse. Could be a long summer in the Bronx…

* On the other side of the coin, Hideki Okajima and the Sox’ bullpen seem better than advertised. Not only has Okajima proved more than capable of being a solid set-up man for uber-closer Jonathan Papelbon, but he’s got the Yankees number. Until events prove otherwise, this is no insignificant development, as the Yankees have to know that, between Okajima and Papelbon, the usual nine-inning affair has just shrunk to seven innings max when it comes to being able to do damage against the Sox’ pitching staff.

* It’s often said that Democrats have never met a tax they didn’t like. To that end, good to see the wealthy, ambulance-chasing trial lawyer show his true stripes. You watch, the rest of the Dems Presidential candidates will now be tripping over one another in the weeks ahead with their own tax increase plans. When it comes to promoting class warfare, no one does it better than the Democrats. What a bunch of freakin’ hypocrites…

* The untimely death of Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock (a one-time Red Sox farmhand, BTW) should be a message to us all that our hold on this life is a very tenuous one, indeed. All you can do is live for today and slog through the best you can…

* …Just recalling fondly the good old days when television commercials were all about cars and dining out. Now, all you get is drug manufacturers pushing everything from erectile dysfunction to Sally Field and her osteoporosis commercials - not to mention, of couse, the obligatory sleep aid advertisements. Frankly, it’s enough to send me rushing to my medicine cabinet for a couple of Bayer…

* Congrats to Scott Verplank for winning a golf tournament he’s always wanted to win. I’m sure at this stage in his career, he’ll take any victory he can, but to win an event associated with one of his heroes must be sweet, indeed.

* Seems the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Mayor Ray Nagin are back in the Lower Ninth Ward still bitching about President Bush and the federal government’s so-called lack of response following the post-Katrina floods of nearly two years ago. Look, I understand that many people called the Lower Ninth their home, but it makes no sense to even think of restoring that area of New Orleans to what it once was. Let’s face it, it wasn’t great to begin with, and there are far better areas of the city to consider investing in. Of course, Jesse the Fraud never turns down an opportunity to play the race card - especially when it involves the mayor of “Chocolate City”. What a couple of asses…

Let the record state that on Saturday, April 28 the pool temperature hit 82 degrees and I went for my first swim of the year. Air temperature: 99, with a hint of some thunderstorm activity in sight.

Sigh… Mark my words - it’s going to be a long, hot summer here. God only knows how expensive it’ll end up being…

This story makes for interesting reading. And should it come as any surprise that that what young people in this day and age are seeking is not some new-fangled progressive excursion into the new age, but traditional orders with traditional beliefs and teachings behind it?

Like many of the convents experiencing growth, St. Cecilia is a traditional order. Some young candidates say they are looking for communities that still wear habits and are rooted in conventional theology.

Individualism leads to loneliness and the millennial generation is searching for a sense of community, says Dr. Alice Laffey, associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

But, interestingly, it’s anything but traditional in the way these religious orders are marketing themselves:

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the largest religious order in the United States, hired an outside ad agency to design trendy ads to be placed in secular magazines like People and as Internet banner ads.

“We’re looking at different ways to draw people in,” spokeswoman Catherine Sherrod said.

McGlynn, of Tallahassee, Fla., watched a promotional DVD and visited the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist’s Web site before deciding to join.

“That helps a lot because online you can read about the community and see pictures and see what they’re about,” she said.

Good for them, and a refreshing alternative, I must say, to the bland, vanilla progressive nonsense typically found in the Episcopal Church and other mainline Protestant churches nowadays. I’ve always said that institutions that try to be everything to everyone end up being nothing to no one.

While I’ve had my problems with the Roman Catholic Church in the past with the way it handled the clergy sexual abuse scandals - the primary reason why I’ll probably never cross over the aisle to Rome - I respect their unwillingness not to cave in on their traditions and traditional beliefs and practices. It’s often tough to have control over 100% of what you preach, but far better that then to practice far less than what your supposed to be preaching, which is what’s often happening on the Protestant side of the fence.

A few baseball-related thoughts and observations one week into the season:

* I know an easy way to clear up this latest Curt Schilling/bloody sock controversy. Let’s do a DNA test on the sock and announce the results publicly. Like the late Johnny Cochrane would say, if the sock fits, you must acquit! And if, in fact, it turns out to be the Schill-man’s blood, Oriole broadcaster Gary Thorne should publicly wear a dress, admit he’s a jerk, and go back to calling games for a crummy team that will go nowhere fast for yet another season.

* If Coco Crisp does indeed go on the DL, I say it’s time for the Sox to bring up minor-league phenom (and Johnny Damon lookalike) Jacoby Ellsbury and play him for a couple of weeks. Not only will be good exposure for the kid at a no-pressure time of the year, but he’d be an ideal platoon with Wily Mo Pena, who tonight broke a 1-for-15, 9 Ks streak with a 3-5 (including a grand-slam) performance against the Orioles. I still think the Bronson Arroyo trade that brought Pena to Boston was the worst of GM Theo Epstein’s tenure, and that sooner or later they’ll find a taker for Wily Mo in return for pitching.

* If you’re the Dodgers, you’ve got to be concerned about Jason Schmidt and all that money invested in him.

* But I still think the Giants giving Barry Zito, and KC Gil Meche, all that money were bigger mistakes. But time will tell.

* I’m betting the house, the farm, and that Masters 2007 baseball cap I got from my friend Lynn that Roger Clemens pitches for the Yankees starting in July.

* …which probably means ‘dude decides to retire.

* Hanley Ramirez is already a great player, but to get something good you have to give up something good, and I’m glad the Sox have Josh Beckett for the top of their rotation for years to come.

* I can’t stand the fact that John Miller, Joe Morgan, and - for that matter - all the dopes over at ESPN want to promote Barry Bonds’ pursuit of Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record as something news-worthy. The guy’s been a noted juicer and a pox on the game, and his career numbers are already tarnished. As far as I’m concerned, the more Bonds’ work is ignored, the better of the game will be.

* So L.A. Times sportswriter Mike Penner feels the need to tell his audience that he is a transsexual. Never mind the fact that someone’s sexual identity ought to be his own business and stay off the pages of his newspaper. But I’m just wondering if his announcement means we can now officially call him a switch-hitter…

(Note: To show my support for Hillary Clinton’s recent, and most blatant, panderings to the African-American community, including, of all things, comparing herself to Harriet Tubman (!), today’s post (below), with the help of The Dialectizer, has also been translated into jive. After all, if a privileged, wealthy white chick from Illinois, educated at Wellesley College, who has never lacked for anything she ever wanted in her life (except the Presidency of the U.S.A., which she’ll do or say anything to attain), can make talk like she just ‘gots outta’ de ‘hood, so can I!)

When yo’ Goodboys nickdojigger be De Great Honky Shank, it’s hardly some testimony t’yo’ golfin’ acumen. ‘S coo’, bro. Am ah’ de wo’st golfa’ amongst da damn Goodboys? Ah’ don’t dink so’s - at least not on some regular basis, but occasionally dat gots sadly been de case. I’ve neva’ aspired t’be some scratch golfa’ - if ah’ can bust 100 every now and den I’d be mo’e dan satisfied; alternatively, any time I’m makin’ googoo eyes at 110 o’ wo’se, ah’s feelin’ the blues, to be sho’. ‘S coo’, bro. De only comfo’t be knowin’ dat in de game uh golf, as Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy wuz wont t’say, puh’fecshun be unattainable, and sometimes I’m mah’ own wo’st enemy at makin’ certain dat goal remain elusive.

Several years ago, when we lived in Kentucky, ah’ actually rode some there streak fo’ a time where ah’ wuz constantly shootin’ anywhere between 96 and 105 - in fact, it wuz in 2000 dat ah’ and mah’ main man dat year, Bo-Jangles “El Dandito” Drewett, took de Goodboys Invitashunal crown. ‘S coo’, bro. De followin’ sprin’, mah’ game started south once mo’e and it neva been righteous since. Y’dig? While da damn main source uh my problems wuz mah’ irons - especially in terms uh bod accuracy and, frustratin’ly so, distance - it wuz consistency off de tee dat wuz real de source uh my problems. De pros say ya’ “roll fo’ show and putt fo’ dough”, but fo’ beginna’s likes me, if ya’ kin’t dig off de tee, ya’’ll not only sco’e poo’ly but lose an awful uh golf balls hangin’ so. ‘S coo’, bro.

Mo’e dan nuthin else, however, it wuz mah’ course management - de strategy one employs t’always try t’put yo’self in some posishun t’succeed on any given hole by avoidin’ risky shots and playin’ t’yo’ strengds (mine happens t’be mah’ sho’t game) - dat left da damn most t’be desired. To dat end, last year ah’ started makin’ heat t’my arsenal - some 9 and 11 wood t’accompany mah’ 1, 3, 5, and 7 woods. While dis meant ah’ could now go fo’ greens fum distances ah’ could neva’ do wid mah’ mid-to-long irons, de effect on mah’ sco’e wuz minimal, but da damn potential remained. Whut ah’ needed wuz some strategy, an image in mah’ brain, dat ah’ could carry wid me onto de course t’guide mah’ play and improve mah’ course management. Man!

Hence “De Go Zone”. Whut be “De Go Zone”? Simply put, it’s identifyin’ one o’ two places on any given hole where ah’ can do whut ah’ can do best and most regularly - which is, chip onto de green and two-putt. Man! On par 3s, it all depends on de distance and da damn hazards protectin’ de green - sometimes ya’ plum have t’go fo’ it and let da damn chips fall where dey may. Slap mah fro! But on par 4s and par 5s, it’s allowin’ mah’self 2 shots (on de fo’mer) and dree shots (on de latter) t’get t’“De Go Zone”. If I’m able t’do dat and den do no wo’se dan some chip and two putts, I’m playin’ bogey golf and ah be baaad… In practical terms, whut dis means be dat ah’ fine much keep de rollr in de bag and go wid some 3-wood (o’ sometimes even some 5-wood) off de tee in most cases.

Since takin’ dis “Go Zone” approach, I’ve played dree rounds uh golf, and da damn results gots been stunnin&