Have you ever heard about the theories of parallel universes, or alternate realities? It’s not all science fiction, because real scientist who are far smarter than me continue to postulate and hypothesize on many theories, and they not only can’t rule it out they also see evidence of it being real. Stephen Hawking was actually writing a paper about it when he passed away.

Why do I bring up the possibility of alternate realities? Because this week I clearly must have visited one. It was one in which Thursday was Wednesday, until I returned to my regular universe this morning and I realized it was Friday. So I missed posting a blog yesterday due to a visit to a parallel universe. Yeah, that’s the ticket! And, in addition to that, the dog ate my homework.

That short trip to an alternate reality was no doubt generated by a lack of any cohesive themes or stories to tell in this week’s installment. I’ve got a couple of odds and ends (evens and starts?) to write about, and then we’ll fall back on the time honored tradition of questions from blog readers. The good old “Q & A” style of writing a blog. Also known as a Toronto pool hall. Get it? A little “cue and eh.”

A couple of blogs back I wrote about our weekend trip to St. Louis to celebrate my birthday (and oh by the way, in the parallel universe I visited we didn’t go to St. Louis. We went to Kansas City. Go figure.) One of our last stops, in Kirkwood, was a fun little gift shop in the downtown area, and while we were perusing lots of St. Louis-themed stuff I stumbled upon a case of custom made St. Louis coasters. The kind you set a glass on, not the kind you ride and throw up on. They had all sorts of well-known destinations, restaurants, and even schools. I found a Rigazzi’s one quickly and knew I had to buy that, but flipping through the ones with schools was not a successful venture. All sorts of high schools and colleges, but no St. Louis U. High.

I took the Rigazzi’s coaster to the counter and jokingly told the woman who waited on us, “I’ll take this one, but you ruined my day by not having my high school.”

She said, “Where did you go?” and I replied “St. Louis U. High.” And that’s where two things happened, at least in this universe. She said, “Oh, we sell out of SLU High all the time. The girl who makes them will get me some more within a few days.”

I told her we now live in Minnesota and she said, “I’ll send it to you when it comes in, and if you want to just leave the Rigazzi’s one I’ll send them both at once.” So I paid for them and gave her my address.

What happened there? First, she called it SLU High. Some of my nieces and nephews, who lived in St. Louis during the 80s, remember hearing people calling it SLU High (Sloo High). But, never in my life, growing up with two brothers who went there, and attending for four years myself, did I ever hear a St. Louisan call my school SLU High. We just called it SLUH (Sloo) or “The U High.”  Times change, or is this an example of where two parallel universes briefly collided, and the one in which everyone always called it SLU High met up with the one that didn’t and now out of nowhere people call it this new name? I must know.

Secondly, it’s all about places like Kirkwood. “Just give me the money and I promise I’ll send them to you.” After we left, Barbara asked, “What are the odds you’ll ever see those coasters?” I said the odds were roughly 100 percent. And they where.

As for my next story, it’s another other-worldly spectacle that raises all sorts of mystical theories. We call it the “Minny & Paul Stonehenge Moment.” We went to the Twins game Tuesday night and witnessed it. You can almost hear the humming of the universe when it happens.

During certain parts of the summer, at just the right moment, on a sunny evening when the Twins are playing, the sun shines through the space between the top of the upper deck and the roof that is cantilevered over it, and a distinct band of sunlight then illuminates the gigantic Twins logo out in centerfield. Like a precise spotlight, it just lights up Minny and Paul, as they shake hands across the Mississippi.

I love that sign and I love the logo. I wrote in “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” how, when the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and therefore took my dad with them in terms of employment, our house in Kirkwood quickly began to fill with all things Minnesota Twins. Stationery, ash trays, pens, and note pads were soon followed by radios, coasters (see, more coasters!), and photos of individual players and the team.

I hadn’t yet turned five and I lived in suburban St. Louis, but I was already enamored with the quirky cartoon characters, the state outline, the river, and the little bridge. It’s a brilliant logo, and it stands the test of time despite the fact the two characters of Minny and Paul are clearly done in a very “late 50s” style.

And did you know that when the Griffith family moved the Washington Senators to Minnesota, they initially planned to call the team the Twin City Twins, but MLB overruled them on that. The second choice was Minnesota Twins and that stuck. The Twins were allowed, however, to keep the TC hat design they’d submitted for approval. The reason for this had to do with not alienating people who lived in St. Paul (or anywhere else in the state) if they had named the team the Minneapolis Twins. Every current sports team in the area uses the Minnesota moniker, no matter what part of the Twin Cities they play in. I think the last team to go with Minneapolis in their name was the Minneapolis Lakers. They moved to Los Angeles right before the 1960-61 season, which coincidentally was just when the Twins were arriving. Weird, huh? That also explains why the L.A. Lakers have a nickname that makes no sense in Southern California.

See, I had nothing to write about and you’ve already learned stuff.

Now, on to that Toronto pool hall, eh.

Rochelle, from (of all places) Sydney, Australia asked me recently, “Any plans to ever come down-under, with a race team or just to come visit our side of the planet?”

No current plans, Rochelle, but Barbara and I would love to visit. We’d absolutely combine that trip with a stop in New Zealand, as well. It’s just a matter of deciding to do it, planning the trip, spending the money, and psyching ourselves up for a very long flight. One trick that some travelers use is a stopover in Hawaii on the way. Spend a couple of days there, and the rest of the trip isn’t so long. Or, the stopover could be in Tahiti. That would be awesome! I doubt I’d go without Barbara, so it would likely be just a vacation, and I know it would be a great one. And when we get there we’ll say G’day!

Garry in Winnipeg asked me, quite a few months ago, “Why doesn’t the NHRA hold national events in Canada anymore?” The answer to this is from a little bit before my time in the sport, but I think I know the reason. NHRA ran a national event near Montreal for many years, at a place called Sanair Raceway. At some point, right around the time I was coming into the sport, Canadian fuel regulations were changed and NHRA had to pull out of the market because leaded racing fuel was banned. That’s how I remember it, anyway. So, I never got to go to Sanair but I’ve heard lots of stories from racers who have and they all seemed to really enjoy it. Currently, even if the ban were lifted for NHRA purposes, there’s really no venue that is fully suited to immediately host a major race like an NHRA national event.

Ted from Bossier City (that’s in Louisiana) messaged me on Facebook and wrote, “I just finished your book and really loved it. Great work! What are your plans for your next book, because you have to write at least another one. A sequel? Maybe fiction?”

Well, Ted, those are some great questions, and the last one is now timely even though at the time you messaged me I didn’t know it yet. Despite the fact Greg Halling and I left reams of good material on the floor throughout the editing process, I don’t think a sequel is in order. I need something new to tackle, and the first goal was to write my father’s biography. That project is stalled right now, because I made the mistake of launching it right when spring training began. I definitely need the help of a few Major League teams to line up all the interviews I wanted to do, and the Minnesota Twins have been very helpful, but there are few jobs on Earth more time consuming than positions in the PR, Media, and Communications departments for a Major League team. You literally work from morning until late at night nearly every day. It’s a 162-game schedule, after all.

So… And this is a very recent thing, I am indeed planning to tackle a fiction book. I’m committed to it, and excited about it, but the outline, the characters, and the themes are just now being jotted down on a note pad. Unlike my autobiography, where I could sit down on the first day and just start writing, I have to make everything up for this new book, starting with the names and backgrounds of the characters. Every single detail in the book will have to be created from thin air. It’s going to be a huge stretch for me, as a writer, but that’s what has me so excited. I have a rough idea of how it’s all going to go, but I’ll need to fill this note pad with page after page of concepts, time lines, and outlines before I can even get started. The overall theme is one person who exists in two parallel universes, and in one of them he’s actually a really good baseball player. I’M JUST KIDDING! It’s about three universes. NO IT’S NOT! You’ll just have to wait and see. I think I can write it fairly quickly once the hard part of creating it all is done.

Finally, longtime reader Karen from Charlotte (who claims to have read every single blog I’ve written since the first day on NHRA.com, and has suffered no brain damage from the exposure) asked me this pertinent question. She wrote, “I really want to write a blog, and I think I have some good ideas, but I don’t even know how to get started. How in the world do you do it? How did you learn to write like you do?”

I wrote Karen back, via email, but I’ll answer her queries here, as well. That sounds like a simple question but I really don’t know the answer. I’m terrible with math, science, and a lot of other stuff. I could never have been an accountant or any kind of scientist. I don’t play any instruments and can’t read music, despite the fact the nuns at Mary, Queen of Peace tried their best to teach us that for eight years. I couldn’t do my wife’s job if the world depended on it. But, from a very young age I could string words together fairly easily. It just came naturally. It took me decades to refine the art and cut out a lot of the dead wood that comes from trying to “write too much” every time you put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. And what’s great about it is that you can always keep improving. There doesn’t seem to be a place where all of a sudden you’re done, like “That’s it. That’s as good as you get.” In sports, as I know firsthand, there really is a spot where you’re as good as you’re ever going to be and then it starts to go downhill. With writing, you just keep learning and adapting.

I give all the credit to my mom. Her writing and communications skills are part of me. There’s a whole bunch of Taffy Wilber inside her youngest boy. It was just my responsibility to keep growing and expanding what she gave me.

As for your blog, Karen, there’s one thing for certain. If you never try, you’ll never succeed. Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t let it intimidate you. You’re not curing diseases or building bombs. It can’t hurt you! Just write. Write as much as you can, as often as you can. Then go back and read it with the purpose of finding what really doesn’t need to be there, or what really does need to be there. Go for it!

So that’s about it for this week. I think, in my parallel universe, it’s really still Thursday and I’m right on time. I’ve also noticed, over there, that I have a lot more hair. What poor luck to be stuck over here!

As always, if you read this and liked it, please “Like” it by clicking the button at the top. At least, do that if you’re not too mad at me for missing Thursday.

See you next week, from one universe or another.

Bob Wilber, at your service from random parallel realities.