Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How was your weekend?  It was a pretty productive couple of days here.  We made it to the gym, worked in a bike ride, got new work shoes for the first time in years, plus did a litle cleaning around Clutter Headquarters.  You like?  It all went by too quickly, but there's nothing we can do about that except press onward, so help yourself to a nice iced DD, and let's clear out a little Monday Clutter.

A new survey paints a frightening picture regarding growing economic insecurity in this country.

The bad news continues for Anthony Weiner, as his campaign manager quit.  Can't say I'm impressed with the judgment of someone who couldn't see what they were likely getting into when they signed on in the first place, but it must have seemed like an exciting opportunity.

The GOP's War on Women continues on, as Republican senators are chomping at the bit like rabid dogs to further restrict a woman's ability to make her own health care decisions.

Clutter doesn't have the slightest idea what the stock market will do this week, but we have a few extra dollars to spare, so we'll be throwing them in to add to the massive Clutter portfolio, which will surely pay off in the long run.

We didn't get a chance to discuss this yesterday, but the Big Papi News Desk was decidedly unimpressed with David Ortiz's meltdown Saturday night after the home plate umpre badly blew two calls, and Ortiz proceeded to strike out.   He absolutely got screwed over by an umpire who was having a particularly bad night, but there's no excuse for completely losing his self-control and taking it out on the phone in the dugout, particularly because he could have hurt Dustin Pedroia who was sitting nearby on the bench.  A cynical person would describe the outburst as roid-rage, but we'll stick with simple emotions running too high.  Get a grip, big man.

By the way, props to Pedroia for going face-t0-face with Ortiz to get him to calm down, or rather face-to-belly button.  This is Pedroia's team, and it will be for the next eight years.

So, now that we've got that out of the way, cheers to Big Papi for focusing on crushing baseballs instead of phones on Sunday, as his two-run home run helped lead the Red Sox to a 5-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles.  Add that to the New York Yankees beating the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Sox are back in first place.  The Rays are in town tonight to make up that rained-out game from last week, so here's hoping Felix Doubront can help Boston put some distance between themselves and Tampa.

That's better.  (pic via greenwichtime.com)

I don't remember hearing that former New York Yankee / Seattle Mariner star Tino Martinez had an anger management issue as a player, but apparently that's the case.  Martinez resigned as the hitting coach of the Miami Marlins after repeated accusations of being verbally abusive to players (and physically abusive in at least one instance.)  All I can say is it's a good thing the Sox were unsuccessful in hiring him this past off-season.  Who needs to worry about whether or not your hitting coach is a whack-job?

Cheers to current Yankees star Derek Jeter for returning (again) from  the disabled list in style, hitting a home run on the first pitch that he saw.  Double cheers to him for helping the Yankees beat the Rays and bringing first place back to Boston.  Okay, that's enough positive New York talk.  I feel a little queasy.

Struggling Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols could be lost for the season with a lingering foot injury.  If you're an Angels fan, how are you feeling about the fact that Pujols has eight years and about $192 million left on his contract?  I have no gripe with Pujols, but a 10 year contract for $240 million is just begging to be a disaster.

Sorry to hear that former New England Patriots / current Denver Broncos center Dan Koppen is out for the season with a torn ACL.  There are too many jokes to be made about his replacement being named "Manny Ramirez," so we're just going to move on now.

Condolences to the family and friends of singer-songwriter JJ Cale, who died on Friday.  Cale wrote a number of popular songs in the 1970's, including Eric Clapton's, "Cocaine," and "After Midnight," both of which are some of the first Clapton songs I remember hearing, because they were on a "Clapton's Greatest Hits" cassette tape that Dad Clutter owned.  Cale was 74 years old.

Still no sign of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary trailer.  I swear, I'm trying my hardest not to twitch.  However, the big news of the weekend is that I expect to be watching the show on the afternoon of November 23rd instead of the evening, and you should click here to find out why that's so cool.

Now seriously, can someone please hook a guy up with that trailer?

Whew, that was a lot to get through!  I say we close things out with Eric Clapton dominating
"After Midnight" (with an assist from Steve Winwood) for today's, "Song of the Day."  Sound good?  Here we go:

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the rest of your day, and feel free to come back later tonight it you want to watch the Sox take on the Rays with us.  Otherwise, be good, and we'll see you back here again soon.  For now, that's today's Clutter, and it's not after midnight, but we are outta here.